Pre-earthquake ionospheric anomalies before three major earthquakes by GPS-TEC and GIM-TEC data during 2015–2017

Abstract

The dual-frequency satellite-based measurements from Global Positioning System (GPS) may provide feasible ways of studying and potentially detecting of earthquake (EQ) related anomalies in the ionosphere. In this paper, GPS based Total Electron Content (TEC) data are studied for three major M > 7.0 EQs in Nepal and Iran-Iraq border during 2015–2017 by implementing statistical procedures on temporal and spatial scale. Previous studies presented different time interval of pre-seismic ionospheric anomalies, however, this study showed that EQs ionospheric precursors may occur within 10 days. Furthermore, the ionospheric anomalies on the suspected day occurred during UT = 08:00–12:00 h before the main shock. The Global Ionospheric Map TEC (GIM-TEC) data retrieved over the epicenter of M7.8 (Nepal EQ) showed a significant increase of 6 TECU on April 24, 2015 (one day before the main shock), which is recorded by the ground GPS station data of Islamabad (station lies within the EQ preparation zone). Furthermore, the spatial GIM-TEC result imply significant anomalies over the epicenter during the time interval between UT = 08:00–12:00 h (LT = 13:00–17:00). For M7.3 (Nepal EQ), the TEC anomalies were detected on May 10, 2015 (2 days before the event) in the temporal data. The spatial TEC data imply the huge clouds over the epicenter at about UT = 08:00–12:00 h on May 10, 2015, that may be associated with this EQ in the quiet geomagnetic storm conditions. Similarly, temporal and spatial TEC showed anomaly on November 3, 2017, during UT = 08:00–12:00 (9 days before the Iran-Iraq border EQ) after implementing the statistical method on it. Conversely, there exists a short-term but low magnitude TEC anomaly synchronized with a geomagnetic storm on November 7–8, 2017 (4 to 5 days prior to M7.3 Iran-Iraq border EQ). The diurnal and hourly GIM-TEC and VTEC data also imply the execution of ionospheric anomalies within 10 days prior to all events. All these positive anomalies in TEC may be due to the existence of a huge energy from the epicenter during the EQ preparation period.