Comparison of simultaneous variations of the ionospheric total electron content and geomagnetic field associated with strong earthquakes

Abstract. In this paper, perturbations of the ionospheric Total Electron Content (TEC) are compared with geomagnetic oscillations. Comparison is made for a few selected periods, some during earthquakes in California and Japan and others at quiet periods in Israel and California. Anomalies in TEC were extracted using Global Positioning System (GPS) observations collected by GIL (GPS in Israel) and the California permanent GPS networks. Geomagnetic data were collected in some regions where geomagnetic observatories and the GPS network overlaps. Sensitivity of the GPS method and basic wave characteristics of the ionospheric TEC perturbations are discussed. We study temporal variations of ionospheric TEC structures with highest reasonable spatial resolution around 50 km. Our results show no detectable TEC disturbances caused by right-lateral strike-slip earthquakes with minor vertical displacement. However, geomagnetic observations obtained at two observatories located in the epicenter zone of a strong dip-slip earthquake (Kyuchu, M = 6.2, 26 March 1997) revealed geomagnetic disturbances occurred 6–7 h before the earthquake.