GPS network observation of traveling ionospheric disturbances following the Chelyabinsk meteorite blast

摘要

We use the Global Positioning System (GPS) network in northwest China andcentral Asia to monitor traveling ionospheric disturbances (TIDs), whichwere possibly excited by the large meteorite blast over Chelyabinsk, Russia,on 15 February 2013. Two TIDs were observed. The first TID was observed 13 min after the blast within a range of 270–600 km from the blast site. Itpropagated radially from the blast site with a mean velocity and period of369 m s and 12 min, respectively. The second TID was found in northwestChina, 1.5 h after the time of the blast, at  ∼  2500–3100 km from the blast site. This latter TID propagated southeastward with avelocity and period of 410 m s and 23 min, respectively. Severe dissipationof the perturbation total electronic content (TEC) amplitude was observed. Any TIDs propagating in aglobal range was not found after the meteorite blast. Features of TIDs werecompared with those excited by early nuclear explosion tests. It is inferredfrom our analysis that the energy release of the Chelyabinsk meteorite blastmay not be large enough to excite such ionospheric disturbances in a globalrange as some nuclear explosions did.