Ionosphere Response to the M9 Tohoku Earthquake Revealed by Satellite Observations on South American Stations. Preliminary results.

HERNAN ESQUIVEL; BLAS DE HARO; CESAR VALLADARES; VICTOR H. RIOS; GILDA GONZALES; SEBASTIÁN LEAL; INEZ BATISTA

Sao Jose dos Campos

Workshop; Second Low-Latitude Ionospheric Sensor Network Workshop; 2011

INPE-LISN

The recent earthquake in Japan Tohoku M9 11 March 2011 was the largest earthquake ever recorded to hit this nation. We retrospectively analyzed the temporal and spatial variations of GPS / TEC for different seasons in South America (14 stations and 11 stations equatorial latitudes). These changes characterize the state of the ionosphere several days before the start of this earthquake. The first results show that on March 10 showed a rapid increase in the Total Electron Content from satellite data and an anomaly. GPS data / TEC indicate an increase and that the variation in electron density reaches a maximum value on March 10. From there, he also confirmed that in the lower ionosphere was an abnormal variation of TEC over the epicenter. from the 10 to 11 March, there was a large increase in the concentration of electrons recorded in the four Japanese ionosondes located on land, which returned to normal after the main earthquake. We found a positive correlation between the atmospheric and ionospheric anomalies and the earthquake in Tohoku. This study may lead to a better understanding of the response of the atmosphere / ionosphere to the great earthquake in Tohoku.