Tonga Eruption Detected at Maunakea

On Saturday 15 January 2022 04:10 UT (Friday evening 14 January 2022 in the US), an underwater volcano in the South Pacific erupted violently. The eruption from the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai volcano created atmospheric pressure waves that were detected and seen 5000 kilometers (or 3000 miles) away in Hawai‘i.

The waves were captured visually Friday evening in the Cloudcam at Gemini North, one half of the international Gemini Observatory, a Program of NSF's NOIRLab. The waves can be seen above the observatory dome, looking like undulating cirrus clouds.