Examplified by the explosion at the city of Beirut on August 4, 2020: Observational data
| 1Chernogor, LF, Garmash, KP 1V.N. Karazin Kharkiv National University, Kharkiv, Ukraine |
| Kinemat. fiz. nebesnyh tel (Online) 2021, 37(4):35-48 |
| https://doi.org/10.15407/kfnt2021.04.035 |
| Start Page: Dynamics and Physics of Solar System Bodies |
| Language: U |
Abstract: On August 4, 2020, the massive chemical explosion rocked the city of Beirut, Lebanon. The explosion yield has been estimated to be equivalent to 1 kt of TNT, and the physical effects of the explosion on the Earth — atmosphere — ionosphere — magnetosphere system have been analyzed in detail. The possible effects of powerful explosions are of considerable interest to geophysicists and radio physicists to analyze. They allow the mechanisms for transporting the disturbances to be determined in both the vertical and horizontal directions, as well as the mechanisms for coupling the subsystems in the Earth — atmosphere — ionosphere — magnetosphere system to be established. The purpose of the present paper is to describe radio and magnetometer observations of the processes that accompanied the powerful explosion at the city of Beirut on August 4, 2020 in the lower ionosphere and in the geomagnetic field. The observations of the possible response of the near-Earth medium to the explosion have been made with the fluxmeter magnetometer and the radio system for sounding the ionosphere at oblique incidence. The latter system detected an increase of up to 5.3° in the phase of the ionospheric wave and an increase of 3.3 % in the signal amplitude caused by an electron density change of approximately 3 %. If these increases are due to the explosion, then the speed of propagation of the disturbance is estimated to be about 3 km/s. The fluxmeter magnetometer have detected changes in the character of variations in the level of the geomagnetic field occurring in 5 min and in 79 min after the explosion. If these variations were associated with the explosion, then the speeds of propagation can be estimated to be tens of km/s and greater, as well as 490 m/s. The MHD waves have the greater speed, and the acoustic gravity waves have the smaller one, respectively. |
| Keywords: acoustic gravity waves, amplitude effect, atmosphere, geomagnetic field fluctuations, geospace, MHD waves, phase effect, space weather, surface explosion |
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