Tonga eruption affects space . When the Tonga volcano erupted, a huge plume of gas, water vapor and dust shot into the sky and created a huge pressure disturbance in the atmosphere leading to strong winds. As the wind moves up into the thinner atmosphere, it moves faster. On reaching the ionosphere and the edge of space, NASA’s Ionospheric Connection Explorer (ICON) recorded winds of up to 450 miles per hour, the strongest winds below 120 miles ever measured by ICON since its launch. In the ionosphere, extreme winds can also affect current flow. Particles in the ionosphere regularly form an eastward-flowing electric current, an equatorial electrojet, powered by winds in the lower atmosphere. After the eruption of the Tonga volcano , the peak power of the equatorial electric jet surged to 5 times the normal power, and turned sharply and flowed westward for a short time.
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