Investigation of Co‐Seismic Ionospheric Perturbations Generated by Shallow Earthquakes in the Chile Subduction Zone

Abstract

AbstractThe Chile subduction zone is known to host megathrust earthquakes. This study investigates the near‐field co‐seismic ionospheric perturbations (CIP) associated with recent large to great, shallow depth (22–25 km) earthquakes that occurred in the Chile subduction zone. These earthquakes are (a) 16 September 2015, Mw 8.3 (EQ1) (b) 03 April 2014, Mw 7.7 (EQ2) (c) 01 April 2014, Mw 8.2 (EQ3) (d) 02 January 2011, Mw 7.1 (EQ4), and (e) 27 February 2010, Mw 8.8 (EQ5). Using the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) measured total electron content (TEC), we found that despite the lower magnitude of EQ3 than EQ1 and EQ5, the CIP observed during EQ3 had higher amplitudes than that of EQ5 and EQ1. The amplitude of CIP also depends on non‐seismic parameters in addition to the concerning earthquake magnitude. The comparison of relative CIP amplitudes, in light of the non‐seismic parameters of the geomagnetic field and satellite geometry indicates that background electron density (due to different local times of earthquake occurrence) might contributed to CIP amplitudes. We believe that this thorough analysis leads to a better understanding of non‐seismic factors that can largely influence the CIP amplitudes apart from the earthquake magnitudes.