As tsunamis propagate across open oceans, they remain largely unseen due to the lack of adequate sensors, hence limiting the scope of existing tsunami warnings. A potential alternative method relies on the Global Navigation Satellites Systems to monitor the ionosphere for Traveling Ionospheric Disturbances created by tsunami-induced internal gravity waves (IGWs). The approach has been applied to tsunamis generated by earthquakes but rarely by undersea volcanic eruptions injecting energy into both the ocean and the atmosphere. The large 2022 Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai volcanic eruption tsunami is thus a challenge for tsunami ionospheric imprint detection. Here, we show that in near-field regions (<1500km), despite the complex wavefield, we can isolate the tsunami imprint. We also highlight that the eruption-generated Lamb wave’s ionospheric imprints show an arrival time and an amplitude spatial pattern consistent with internal gravity wave origin.
