Observation of the fast-traveling ionospheric disturbances induced by the 2017 North Korean missile

Abstract

The Hwasong-15 (H-15), an intercontinental ballistic missile developed by North Korea, was launched at approximately 18:17 UT on 28 November 2017. It was reported that the H-15 missile reached an altitude of approximately 4500 km and traveled a distance of nearly 960 km from its launch site. We use GPS/GLONASS measurements obtained from the Korean GNSS network (KGN) to observe ionospheric total electron content (TEC) disturbances to the H-15 missile launch. TEC depletion by the H-15 missile is smaller than that by the 2016 Kwangmyongsong-4 (K-4) rocket. Two different background conditions (electron densities) result in a large difference of TEC depletions between the 2017 H-15 and the 2016 K-4. The fast-traveling ionospheric disturbances towards the southwest over South Korea were also observed ∼5–10 min after the missile launch.