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The tsunami that devastated Japan in March and sent awesome waves of water across the Pacific Ocean also sent glowing waves into the sky, a phenomenon scientists caught on camera.
The massive 9.0 magnitude earthquake that struck below the seafloor on March 11 sent waves of energy rushing through the ocean. That energy created the monstrous and deadly tsunami, but the tsunami itself sent waves of energy racing high into the atmosphere, smashing charged and neutral particles together as they went, which created so-called "airglow," Science News reported.
Scientists operating a camera atop a mountain in Hawaii caught the airglow on film, a first, the researchers said.
"It's just total serendipity that we got this measurement," Jonathan Makela, an atmospheric scientist at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign told Science News. "It’s a really neat example of how the environment is coupled together."
Tsunami sky waves are a grand affair. The waves can travel higher than 180 miles (300 km) above the Earth, equivalent to a trip from Chicago to Indianapolis. Their peaks and valleys are meters, sometimes hundreds of meters apart; their horizontal wavelengths — the distance from one peak to the next — can be several hundred kilometers.
Scientists have measured these atmospheric waves using GPS instruments in the past, but the new photograph from Hawaii is the first actual image of these waves in action.
Those who have studied these waves extensively have said that with the proper observational tools in place, these tsunami sky waves could complement current early warning systems for the deadly, terrestrial waves.
© Our Amazing Planet
17 Comments
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Chinchan Zu
...and the links for the images/videoes are???
choiwaruoyaji
Awesome! Didn't even know this phenomenon existed.
ihavegreatlegs
Very cool.
paulinusa
Like others, I've never heard anything like this. How does an ocean tsunami affect the atmosphere?
Kwaabish
pictures, please
gogogo
Where are the photos of them?
Smorkian
Interesting article. I just googled around for more info and came across this article from last year:
http://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/energy-and-environment/article832429.ece
It uses the same paragraph as:
??? I wonder where this article comes from originally?
genkigonzo
Here's a pic http://thehivedaily.com/blog/2011/06/18/tsunami-lit-up-the-heavens-%E2%80%9Cairglow%E2%80%9D-energy-release-recorded/
goddog
Very cool Smorkian. Am going to read it now.
electric2004
Dear Smorkian,
thanks for your link. The text you are referring to is written in a much better way, than the article here in JT.
It seems the JT author had some miss-understanding of several wave phenomena. Probably JT should cut out the word "glowing" in the headline. If the topic is gravitational waves, then the wave itself does not glow. The only thing that might happen is that the already existing glow of the plasma in the upper stratosphere or ionosphere is intensity modulated by the gravity wave, and yes, this can be observed.
WilliB
I´d like to see a photo.
Alphaape
@genkigonzo: Thanks for the link.. Picture looks awesome. Looks like the opening credits to any Universal Studios picture.
The earth and nature is so amazing.
cactusJack
Those pics look awesome. Unforgettable. The aura of Mother Earth.
WilliB
Genkigonzo: Thanks for the link. That is just impressive.
edojin
Ditto Genkigonzo ... thanks for the pic info. Fascinating photo ... plus the fact of the aura itself ...
VicMOsaka
Sure this glow wasn't from a nuclear detonation ?
Xinef
If the picture (Genkigonzo's link) is taken from atop a mountain, this is one hell of a peak! Looks more like an aurora caught from a satellite.
Maybe we will get the actual picture then? Which brings us back to the news: doesn't making news from it require to post the picture?