Investigation of atmospheric acoustic wave signals from the January 15th, 2022 Hunga, Tonga volcanic eruption recorded by Alaska's dense network of multi-sensor stations

The powerful Surtseyan Hunga, Tonga eruption on January 15th, 2022 (04:14:45 UTC) was unprecedented and produced a remarkable set of atmospheric waves. These waves included a Lamb wave which propagated around the world numerous times and contributed to fast-moving tsunamis, infrasound that was recorded globally, and audible atmospheric shock waves (>20 Hz) which were heard by residents across Alaska. Standard models suggest that the high-frequency acoustic wave should not have been audible, though it was reported across the region. Here, we investigate amplitude variations and other characteristics of the Lamb, infrasound, and audible waves recorded on Alaska's dense network of multi-sensor geophysical stations, many of them formerly a part of the EarthScope Transportable Array. These stations are equipped with seismic sensors, microbarometers, and infrasound instruments, and allow us to explore various wave features brought on by this unique event. Open-source Python tools such as ObsPy, pandas, PyGMT, code collaboration via GitHub, and IRIS' Data Management Center played a critical role in collecting infrasound and seismic sensor data to further analyze Lamb wave, infrasound detection, and power spectral density spectrogram figures from the Hunga eruption site. Initial analysis shows large Lamb wave amplitude variations across Alaska that are inconsistent with propagation predictions and may result from source directionality or local propagation variability. The Alaska recordings of the Hunga acoustic waves provide a unique opportunity to study wave characteristics from large volcanic eruptions that can provide insight into wave propagation, recording, and generation.