Pre-Earthquake Ionospheric Anomalies of the Wenchuan Earthquake Studied with DEMETER Satellite

Abstract

The pre-earthquake ionospheric anomalies in Wenchuan, China (21°-41°N, 93°-113°E) are studied and analyzed using the summer nighttime data from 2005 to 2008 measured by DEMETER (Detection of Electro-Magnetic Emission Transmitted from Earthquake Regions) satellite detectors ICE (Internet Communications Engine), IAP (In Application Programming), and ISL (Interior Switching Link). In this paper, we take the 12 May 2008 Wenchuan earthquake as an example, use the spatial gridding method to construct the background field over the epicenter, analyze the background characteristics of very low frequency (VLF) electric field components, low-energy particle parameters, and plasma parameters, and define the perturbation intensity index of each parameter before the earthquake to extract each parameter anomaly in both space and time dimensions. The results show that the background values of some ionospheric parameters in the Wenchuan area are related to spatial distribution. Moreover, anomalous enhancement of low-frequency electric field power spectral density, H+ concentration, He+ concentration and ion concentration with different intensities and anomalous weakening of ion temperature were extracted in the fifteen days before the Wenchuan earthquake. After filtering the data to exclude external interference, such as solar activity, this paper concludes that there is some connection between these anomalies and the Wenchuan earthquake.