Lucie M. Rolland

Imaging and modeling the ionospheric airglow response over Hawaii to the tsunami generated by the Tohoku earthquake of 11 March 2011

[1]xa0Although only centimeters in amplitude over the open ocean, tsunamis can generate appreciable wave amplitudes in the upper atmosphere, including the naturally occurring chemiluminescent airglow layers, due to the exponential decrease in density with altitude. Here, we present the first observation of the airglow tsunami signature, resulting from the 11 March 2011 Tohoku earthquake off the eastern coast of Japan. These images are taken using a wide-angle camera system located at the top of the Haleakala Volcano on Maui, Hawaii. They are correlated with GPS measurements of the total electron content from Hawaii GPS stations and the Jason-1 satellite. We find waves propagating in the airglow layer from the direction of the earthquake epicenter with a velocity that matches that of the ocean tsunami. The first ionospheric signature precedes the modeled ocean tsunami generated by the main shock by approximately one hour. These results demonstrate the utility of monitoring the Earths airglow layers for tsunami detection and early warning.

Ionospheric gravity waves detected offshore Hawaii after tsunamis

[1]xa0On-board satellites techniques provide global coverage and could play an important role in the continuous oceanic survey to prevent the damage produced by powerful tsunamis. We report here new ionospheric observations related to three significant transpacific tsunami events triggered by the 2006 Kuril earthquake, the 2009 Samoa earthquake and the 2010 Chile earthquake. Total Electron Content (TEC) variations extracted from data recorded by a dense Global Positioning System (GPS) network based in Hawaii show ionospheric disturbances within the hours following the tsunami wave passage at sea-level. For each event, we observe ionospheric gravity waves propagating with velocity, direction and arrival time coherent with the tsunami. The tsunamigenic signature in the ionosphere is also compared to in-situ sea-level measurements. These observations provide new examples of the sensitivity of the ionosphere to tsunamigenic gravity waves and confirm that ionospheric monitoring by GPS can provide complementary information on tsunami propagation.

Detection and modeling of Rayleigh wave induced patterns in the ionosphere

[1]xa0Global Positioning System (GPS) allows the detection of ionospheric disturbances associated with the vertical displacements of most of the major shallow seismic events. We describe a method to model the time and space distributions of Rayleigh wave induced total electron content (TEC) patterns detected by a dense GPS array. We highlight the conditions for which a part of the ionospheric pattern can be directly measured, at teleseismic distance and above the epicenter. In particular, a satellite elevation angle lower than 40° is a favorable condition to detect Rayleigh wave induced ionospheric waves. The coupling between the solid Earth and its atmosphere is modeled by computing the normal modes of the solid Earth–atmosphere system. We show the dependency of the coupling efficiency on various atmospheric conditions. By summation of the normal modes we model the atmospheric perturbation triggered by a given earthquake. This shows that a part of the observation is a Rayleigh-induced radiation pattern and therefore characteristic of the seismic rupture. Through atmosphere-ionosphere coupling, we model the ionospheric perturbation. After the description of the local geomagnetic field anisotropic effects, we show how the observation geometry is strongly affecting the radiation pattern. This study deals with the related data for two earthquakes with far-field and near-field observations using the Japanese GPS network GEONET: after the 12 May 2008 Wenchuan earthquake (China) and after the 25 September 2003 Tokachi-Oki earthquake (Japan), respectively. Waveforms and patterns are compared with the observed TEC perturbations, providing a new step toward the use of ionospheric data in seismological applications.

First ionospheric images of the seismic fault slip on the example of the Tohoku‐oki earthquake

[1]xa01Hz GPS measurements from the Japanese GPS network GEONET allowed to retrieve information on the seismic fault of the great M9.0 Tohoku-oki earthquake from the ionosphere total electron content (TEC) measurements. The first arrival of the TEC perturbation was registered 464 seconds after the earthquake ∼140 km on the east from the epicenter. Within next 45 seconds the distribution of ionospheric points imaged a rectangular area (37.39 - 39.28°N; 142.8 – 143.73°E), which coincides with the area of the coseismic crustal uplift. From this source region, the coseismic ionospheric perturbation further propagated at 1.3-1.5 km/s. Such velocity values are 30-40% higher than previously reported for acoustic waves. It is likely that we observed shock-acoustic waves propagating at supersonic speed and having blown all the electrons available between the ground and the height of detection. This fact is coherent with registration of the first arrival of perturbation 464 sec after the earthquake that is, generally speaking, too short time for a regular acoustic wave to reach the ionosphere. Our findings show that the real-time GPS monitoring of seismo-active areas could inform about the parameters of coseismic crustal displacements and can be, subsequently, used for short-term tsunami warnings. In the case of the 03/11/2011 earthquake, the first ionosphere perturbations were registered ∼17 minutes before the tsunami arrived on the east coast of Honshu.

Tsunami signature in the ionosphere: A simulation of OTH radar observations

[1]xa0In the last ten years ionospheric anomalies following major earthquakes and tsunamis have been detected. Global Positioning System (GPS) and altimeters have been proven effective for this purpose, through Total Electron Content (TEC) measurement. Most of these ionospheric anomalies are deterministic and reproducible by numerical modeling via the coupling mechanism through ocean, neutral atmosphere and ionosphere. Numerical modeling supplies also useful support in the estimation of expected ionospheric effects and in the exploration and identification of new techniques to detect ionospheric tsunami signatures. We explore here a new ground-based technique, nominally the use of over-the-horizon (OTH) radars, for tsunami detection through ionospheric monitoring. OTH radars operate in High Frequency (HF) band and sounding the bottomside ionosphere they could anticipate the detection of tsunami-driven Internal Gravity Waves (IGW). To validate this hypothesis, we use HF numerical ray-tracing to simulate synthetic OTH radar measurements through a 3D tsunami-driven IGW ionospheric model. Our simulations clearly identify the tsunami signature in the OTH radar measurements one hour and a half before the tsunami arrival on the coast. The large coverage of OTH radar and its sensitivity to plasma anomalies open new perspectives in the oceanic monitoring and future tsunami warning systems.