Atmosphere-Ionosphere changes observed prior to the M9 Tohoku earthquake

[Emily]

http://arxiv.org/abs/1105.2841

Atmosphere-Ionosphere Response to the M9 Tohoku Earthquake Revealed by Joined Satellite and Ground Observations. Preliminary results
Dimitar Ouzounov, Sergey Pulinets, Alexey Romanov, Alexander Romanov, Konstantin Tsybulya, Dimitri Davidenko, Menas Kafatos, Patrick Taylor
(Submitted on 13 May 2011)

The recent M9 Tohoku Japan earthquake of March 11, 2011 was the largest recorded earthquake ever to hit this nation. We retrospectively analyzed the temporal and spatial variations of four different physical parameters - outgoing long wave radiation (OLR), GPS/TEC, Low-Earth orbit tomography and critical frequency foF2. These changes characterize the state of the atmosphere and ionosphere several days before the onset of this earthquake. Our first results show that on March 8th a rapid increase of emitted infrared radiation was observed from the satellite data and an anomaly developed near the epicenter. The GPS/TEC data indicate an increase and variation in electron density reaching a maximum value on March 8. Starting on this day in the lower ionospheric there was also confirmed an abnormal TEC variation over the epicenter. From March 3-11 a large increase in electron concentration was recorded at all four Japanese ground based ionosondes, which return to normal after the main earthquake. We found a positive correlation between the atmospheric and ionospheric anomalies and the Tohoku earthquake. This study may lead to a better understanding of the response of the atmosphere /ionosphere to the Great Tohoku earthquake.

Full text in PDF format here.

Comments: Preliminary results reported at EGU 2011 in Vienna, Austria
Subjects: Geophysics (physics.geo-ph); Space Physics (physics.space-ph)
Cite as: arXiv:1105.2841v1 [physics.geo-ph]

 

[Emily]

Re: Atmosphere-Ionosphere changes observed prior to the M9 Tohoku earthquake

http://soundcloud.com/voa-korea/quakepredict#

Seismologists and other scientists at eight universities in Japan are collaborating with a team of American and Russian researchers to try to devise a reliable system for predicting destructive earthquakes. This comes after the release of preliminary research following the March 11th earthquake in Japan indicating changes were detected in the atmosphere in the days before and after the destructive tremor. VOA Correspondent Steve Herman reports from our Northeast Asia bureau in Seoul.
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