References

NHESS

Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences

NHESS

Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci.

1684-9981

Copernicus Publications

Göttingen, Germany

10.5194/nhess-6-817-2006

Modification of the low-latitude ionosphere before the 26 December 2004 Indonesian earthquake

Zakharenkova

I. E.

¹ Krankowski

² Shagimuratov

I. I.

West Department of IZMIRAN, Kaliningrad, Russia

Institute of Geodesy, University of Warmia and Mazury, Olsztyn, Poland

25 09 2006

6 5 817 823

2006

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 Generic License. To view a copy of this licence, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/

This article is available from https://nhess.copernicus.org/articles/6/817/2006/nhess-6-817-2006.html

The full text article is available as a PDF file from https://nhess.copernicus.org/articles/6/817/2006/nhess-6-817-2006.pdf

This paper investigates the features of pre-earthquake ionospheric anomalies in the total electron content (TEC) data obtained on the basis of regular GPS observations from the IGS network. For the analysis of the ionospheric effects of the 26 December 2004 Indonesian earthquake, global TEC maps were used. The possible influence of the earthquake preparation processes on the main low-latitude ionosphere peculiarity – the equatorial anomaly – is discussed. Analysis of the TEC maps has shown that modification of the equatorial anomaly occurred a few days before the earthquake. For 2 days prior to the event, a positive effect was observed in the daytime amplification of the equatorial anomaly. Maximal enhancement in the crests reached 20 TECU (50–60%) relative to the non-disturbed state. In previous days, during the evening and night hours (local time), a specific transformation of the TEC distribution had taken place. This modification took the shape of a double-crest structure with a trough near the epicenter, though usually in this time the restored normal latitudinal distribution with a maximum near the magnetic equator is observed. It is assumed that anomalous electric field generated in the earthquake preparation zone could cause a near-natural "fountain-effect" phenomenon and might be a possible cause of the observed ionospheric anomaly.

References 1

Abdu, M. A., Bittencourt, J. A., and Batista, I. S.: Magnetic declination control of the equatorial F region dynamo electric field development and spread F, J. Geophys. Res., 86, 11 443–11 446, 1981.

Datchenko, E. A., Ulomov, V. I., and Chernysheva, S. P.: The anomalies of the electron concentration of the ionosphere as a possible precursor of the Tashkent earthquake, Doklady Acad. Sci. Uzb. SSR, 12, 30–34, 1972.

Davies, E. and Baker, D. M.: Ionospheric effects observed around the time of the Alaskan earthquake of March 28 1964, J. Geophys.Res., 70(9), 2251–2253, 1965.

Depueva, A. K. and Ruzhin, Y. Y.: The equatorial earthquake preparatory stage as a reason of "fountain-effect" in the ionosphere, Preprint no. 82(1029), M., IZMIRAN, 1993.

Fejer, B. G., Scherliess, L., and Paula, E. R.: Effects of the vertical plasma drift velocity on the generation and evolution of equatorial spread F, J. Geophys. Res., 104, 19 859–19 870, 1999.

Gokhberg, M. B., Pilipenko, V. A., and Pokhotelov, O. A.: On the seismic precursors within the ionosphere, Izvestiya Acad. Sci. USSR, Series Physics of the Earth, 10, 17–21, 1983.

Hanson, W. B. and Moffett, R. J.: Ionization transport effects in the equatorial F region, J. Geophys. Res., 71, 5559–5572, 1966.

Hayakava, M. (Ed.): Atmospheric and Ionospheric Electromagnetic Phenomena Associated with Earthquakes, Terra Scientific Publishing Company, Tokyo, Japan, 1999.

Hayakava, M. and Molchanov, O. A. (Eds.): Seismo-Electromagnetics: Lithosphere-Atmosphere-Ionosphere Coupling, Terrapub, Tokyo, Japan, 2002.

Krankowski, A., Zakharenkova, I. E., and Shagimuratov, I. I.: Response of the ionosphere to the Baltic Sea earthquake of 21 September 2004, Acta Geophys., 54, 90–101, 2006.

Larkina, V. I., Nalivayko, A. V., Gershenzon, N. I., Gokhberg, M. B., Liperovskiy, V. A., and Shalimov, S. L.: Observation of VLF emission related with seismic activity on the Intercosmos-19 satellite, Geomagn. Aeron., 23, 684–687, 1983.

Liperovsky, V. A., Pokhotelov, O. A., and Shalimov, S. L.: Ionospheric precursors of earthquakes, Miesdunarodnaya Nauka, Moscow, 304 pp. (in Russian), 1992.

Liu, J. Y., Chen, Y. I., Chuo, Y. J., and Tsai, H. F.: Variations of ionospheric total electron content during the Chi-Chi earthquake, Geophys. Res. Lett., 28(7), 1383–1386. 2001.

Parrot, M.: Statistical Studies with Satellite Observations of Seismogenic Effects, in:Atmospheric and Ionospheric Electromagnetic Phenomena Associated with Earthquakes, edited by: Hayakava, M., Terra Scientific Publishing Company, Tokyo, Japan, 685–695. 1999.

Plotkin, V. V.: GPS detection of ionospheric perturbation before the 13 February 2001, El Salvador earthquake, Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci., 3, 249–253, 2003.

Pulinets, S. A. and Legen'ka, A. D.: Dynamics of equatorial ionosphere during the preparation of strong earthquakes, Geomag. and Aeron. (in Russian), 42(2), 239–244, 2002.

Pulinets, S. A. and Boyarchuk, K.: Ionospheric Precursors of Earthquakes, Springer, Berlin, Germany, 315 p., 2004.

Pulinets, S. A., Leyva Contreras, A., Bisiacchi-Giraldi, G., and Ciraolo, L.: Total electron content variations in the ionosphere before the Colima, Mexico, earthquake of 21 January 2003, Geofisica International, 44(4), 369–377, 2005.

Ruzhin, Y. Y., Oraevsky, V. N., Shagimuratov, I. I., and Sinelnikov, V. M.: Ionospheric precursors of earthquakes revealed from GPS data and their connection with "sea-land" boundary, Proceed. 16th Wroclaw EMC Symposium, pp. 723–726. 2002.

Strakhov, V. N. and Liperovsky, V. A. (Eds.): Short-Term Forecast of Catastrophic Earthquakes Using Radiophysical Methods (in Russian), Institute of Physics of the Earth, 176 p., Moscow, 1999.

Tsai, H. F., Liu, J. Y., Tsai, W. H., and Liu, C. H.: Seasonal variations of the ionospheric total electron content in Asian equatorial anomaly regions, J. Geophys. Res., 106(A12), 30 363–30 369, 2001.

Zakharenkova, I. E., Shagimuratov, I. I., and Lagovsky, A. F.: Ionosphere modification during the earthquakes preparation on the basis of satellite system GPS measurements, Radiowaves Propagation: collected articles of XXI All-Russian scientific conference (in Russian), Ioshkar Ola, 25–27 May 2005, 1, 194–198, 2005.

Zakharenkova, I. E., Shagimuratov, I. I., Lagovsky, A. F., and Krankowski, A.: The ionospheric precursors research for the earthquakes of M$\sim $5.0 class, Electronic journal "Investigated in Russia", 39, pp. 361–371, http://zhurnal.ape.relarn.ru/articles/2006/039.pdf (in Russian), 2006.