Impact of Natural Extreme Events on Geophysical Fields in the Environment

Abstract—The effects of the strong natural events on the acoustic fields in the atmosphere, geomagnetic field, and electrical characteristics of atmospheric surface layer—atmospheric current and electric field—are discussed. The extreme events analyzed in the paper are volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, and impacts of outer space bodies falling to the Earth. These natural phenomena are considered as local indicators of the enhancement of interactions between the geospheres in the lithosphere–atmosphere near-surface system with active involvement of the ionosphere. It is shown that in these cases, the induced effects in the geophysical fields are observed at quite a distance from an event source and have similar amplitudes, probably suggesting a special role of the ionosphere in a rapid long-distance transfer of the disturbances. The effect of the acoustic-gravity waves generated by the strong natural events in their epicentral zone is considered as the main excitation mechanism of the ionosphere. The objectives and tasks of the research aimed at establishing the main regularities and interaction mechanisms between the geospheres in the environment are formulated.