Ionospheric GPS TEC Anomalies and M≥5.9 Earthquakes in Indonesia during 1993-2002

• Published in: TAO : Terrestrial, atmospheric, and oceanic sciences Vol. 19; no. 5; pp. 481 - 488
• Main Authors: Saroso, Sarmoko, Liu, Jann-Yenq, Hattori, Katsumi, Chen, Chia-Hung
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Taiwan 中華民國地球科學學會 01.10.2008; Springer Science and Business Media LLC; Springer Nature B.V; Springer
• Subjects: Anomalies; atmospheric science; Earthquakes; geology; geophysics; Geophysics. Cosmic physics; GPS TEC (Total Electron Content); hydrology; Ionospheric electron content; oceanic science; Pre-earthquake-related anomaly; QC801-809; QE1-996.5; Regions; Seismic activity; space science; The 2004 Sumatra-Andamann; The Sulawesi earthquakes; Total Electron Content; Volcanoes; Sumatra; Indonesia; Pre-earthquake-related anomaly; GPS TEC Total Electron Content; The 2004 Sumatra-Andamann earthquake; The Sulawesi earthquakes
• ISSN: 1017-0839; 2223-8964; 2311-7680; 2311-7680
• DOI: 10.3319/TAO.2008.19.5.481(T)

Indonesia is one of the most seismically active regions in the world, containing numerous active volcanoes and subject to frequent earthquakes with epicenters distributed along the same regions as volcanoes. In this paper, a case study is carried out to investigate pre-earthquake ionospheric anomalies in total electron content (TEC) during the Sulawesi earthquakes of 1993 - 2002, and the Sumatra-Andaman earthquake of 26 December 2004, the largest earthquake in the world since 1964. It is found that the ionospheric TECs remarkably decrease within 2 - 7 days before the earthquakes, and for the very powerful Sumatra-Andaman earthquake, the anomalies extend up to about 1600 km from the epicenter.