The fast-traveling shock acoustic waves triggered by the 2017 North Korean missile

The Hwasong-15 (H-15), an intercontinental ballistic missile developed by North Korea, was launched at approximately 18:17 UT on 28 November 2017. It was reported that the H-15 missile reached an altitude of approximately 4,500 km and traveled a distance of nearly 960 km from its launch site. We use GPS/GLONASS measurements obtained from the Korean GNSS network (KGN) to observe ionospheric total electron content (TEC) disturbances to the H-15 missile launch. The fast-traveling shock acoustic waves (SAWs) towards the southeast over South Korea were observed 5-10 minutes after the missile launch. Its velocity was approximately 2.3 km/s which is much faster than velocities typically reported in previous studies. The vertical component of the H-15 missile was generally stronger than the horizontal one due to a trajectory of high altitude. Nevertheless, it also had a fast horizontal velocity. Our results suggest that the second-stage performance of the H-15 missile could be very powerful.