Abstract

On August 4, 2020, a massive 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. These effects make it possible to reveal the mechanisms for transporting the disturbances in both the vertical and horizontal directions as well as the mechanisms for interaction of the subsystems in the Earth–atmosphere–ionosphere–magnetosphere system. The purpose of the present paper is to describe radio and magnetometer observations of the processes that accompanied the powerful explosion in 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 a fluxmeter magnetometer and a 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, the speed of propagation of the disturbance is estimated to be approximately 3 km/s. The fluxmeter magnetometer has detected changes in the character of variations in the level of the geomagnetic field occurring 5 min and 79 min after the explosion. If these variations were associated with the explosion, 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 a greater speed, and the acoustic gravity waves have a smaller speed, respectively.

中文翻译：

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2020 年 8 月 4 日贝鲁特市地表爆炸对大气和地球空间的物理影响：观测数据

摘要

2020 年 8 月 4 日，一场大爆炸震撼了黎巴嫩贝鲁特市。估计爆炸当量相当于1 kt TNT，并详细分析了爆炸对地球-大气-电离层-磁层系统的物理影响。地球物理学家和无线电物理学家对强力爆炸可能产生的影响进行了分析。这些效应使得揭示在垂直和水平方向上传输扰动的机制以及地球-大气-电离层-磁层系统中子系统相互作用的机制成为可能。本论文的目的是描述伴随 2020 年 8 月 4 日贝鲁特强烈爆炸过程的无线电和磁力计观测，在低电离层和地磁场中。近地介质对爆炸的可能响应的观测是使用磁通计磁力计和用于以斜入射探测电离层的无线电系统进行的。后一个系统检测到电离层波的相位增加了高达 5.3°，并且由大约 3% 的电子密度变化引起的信号幅度增加了 3.3%。如果这些增加是由于爆炸引起的，那么扰动的传播速度估计约为 3 公里/秒。磁通计磁力计检测到爆炸后 5 分钟和 79 分钟发生的地磁场水平变化特征的变化。如果这些变化与爆炸有关，传播速度可以估计为数十公里/秒和更高以及 490 米/秒。MHD波的速度较大，声学重力波的速度分别较小。