Multidisciplinary Approach for Earthquake Atmospheric Precursors Validation by Joint Satellite and Ground Based Observations

Abstract

International audiencePrevious studies have shown that there were electromagnetic (EM) effects in the atmosphere/ionosphere caused by some strong earthquakes. Several major earthquakes are accompanied by an intensification of the vertical transport of charged aerosols in the lower atmosphere. These processes lead to the generation of external electric currents in specific regions of the atmosphere and the modifications, by DC electric fields, in the ionosphere-atmosphere electric circuit. Our methodology of integrated satellite terrestrial framework (ISTF) is based on the use of multi-sensor data and a cross-correlation between ground and satellite observations to record any atmospheric thermal anomalies and ionospheric perturbations associated with these activities. We record thermal infrared data from the Aqua, GOES, POES satellites and DEMETER provides space plasma variations related to the growth of the DC electric field. Simultaneously we continuously monitor ground-based multi-parameter GPS/TEC, ion concentration, radon, and magnetic field array data. We integrate these joint observations into the Lithosphere-Atmosphere-Ionosphere Coupling (LAIC) model. The significance of this combined satellite and ground-based analysis is that it permits us to generate hindcasts of historical seismicity in Japan, Taiwan (2003-2009) and recent catastrophic events in Italy (M6.3, 2009), Haiti (M7.0, 2010) and Chile (M8.8, 2010). This joint analysis of ground and satellite data during the time of major earthquakes has shown the presence of persistent anomalies in the atmosphere over regions of maximum stress (along plate boundaries), and are not of meteorological origin, since they are stationary over the same region. Our approach provides the framework for a multidisciplinary validation of earthquake precursors and we are looking forward to validating this approach over high seismicity regions