Live Breaking News & Updates on Ionospheric Anomalies Prior

We present the conjugated ionospheric total electron content (TEC) anomalies prior to the 2011 Mw9.0 Tohoku-oki earthquake, Japan, observed by the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) stations in northern Australia. The onset time of the anomaly, determined by the Akaike’s information criterion, is 41.5 minutes before the earthquake in Australia, which is very close to the time observed in Japan. The positive TEC anomalies in Australia emerged on the same longitude as the land area of NE Japan. This supports the model that electric fields within the ionosphere redistributed the electrons immediately before large earthquakes. However, the observed anomaly is shifted equatorward by ~500 km reflecting the difference in physical mechanisms between the two hemispheres. We also found that the geomagnetic declination near the conjugate point simultaneously started to change ~40 minutes before the earthquake, but its physical implication is yet to be explored. ....

Japan Trench , Japan General , Iv Region , Central Chile , Chile General , Earth Observation Network , National Natural Science Foundation Of China , Research Funds For The Central Universities , Global Navigation Satellite System , Observation Network , Medium Scale Traveling Ionospheric Disturbances , Large Scale Traveling Ionospheric Disturbances , Reference Curves , Onset Times , Global Positioning System , Southwestern Australia , Western Australia , Physical Models , Preseismic Ionospheric , Supplementary Material , National Natural Science Foundation , Fundamental Research Funds , Central Universities , First Ionospheric Images , Seismic Fault Slip , Coseismic Ionospheric Disturbance ,