Impact of a Supernova Explosion on the Earth's Ionosphere according to Data of Very-Low-Frequency Sounding and Magnetometers.

On October 9, 2022, orbiting X-ray and γ-ray telescopes registered the most powerful explosion ever observed in the Universe—the GRB221009A γ-ray burst at a distance of 2.4 billion light years. The response of the Earth's ionosphere to this unique event was detected in the received signals of very-low-frequency (VLF) radio paths passing through both the daytime and nighttime ionosphere. A disturbance in the night sector was observed as a sudden decrease in amplitude up to 7 dB and a sharp jump in the signal phase up to 20°‒30°. Less pronounced amplitude jumps up to 1.5 dB were found in the daytime sector. At the time of the flare, magnetometers showed only the appearance of a weak burst of the geomagnetic field ∼0.5 nT at the time of the flare. In the daytime, an isolated geomagnetic pulse with an amplitude of up to 1 nT was observed. The appearance of a geomagnetic response to a γ-ray flare is surprising, because its radiation creates additional ionization in the stratosphere, significantly below the conducting E-layer of the ionosphere. The recorded event showed that extragalactic γ-ray bursts cause a noticeable perturbation in the Earth's ionosphere, and the network of VLF radio paths covering the lower ionosphere can be considered as a giant γ-ray detector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]