Development of a monitoring system for ionospheric TEC variability before the earthquakes

Abstract

Total Electron Content (TEC) in the ionosphere changes before an earthquake and is one of the important parameters in the study of earthquake precursors. Monitoring of TEC in real-time may prove an excellent input for the effective precursory study of earthquakes. In the present study, a Monitoring system was developed to integrate TEC, geomagnetic storm, and solar flare data and to carry out a TEC anomaly study before earthquakes occurred. The system integrates data from publicly available sources, carries out statistical analysis in the background to detect an anomaly and sends an email notification for the anomaly detected. The system auto-updates at 9.00 a.m. IST daily to check for any missing data in the past 30 days. The system enables observations of the ionosphere conditions before an Earthquake and may help in understanding earthquake precursors and space weather conditions. The system has been demonstrated studying the recent cluster of earthquakes that occurred during July–August 2020 in Tibet, where a series of anomalies were observed during 15, 20, 23, 25 & 28 2020; 02 & July 05, 2020; 06, 08, 10, 15, 25 & July 27, 2020, and August 16, 2020, before the earthquakes. Therefore, the study presents TEC monitoring on a daily basis and its integration with dependent variables in a single platform for effective research on earthquake precursor detection.