Study of local ionospheric plasma perturbation induced by pre-seismic activities

Abstract

The pre-seismic ionospheric anomalies coupled through well-proposed lithosphere–atmosphere–ionosphere processes are known to cause pre-seismic ionospheric disturbances (PIDs). The present paper investigates the regional variation of ionospheric densities in the Iran area with the purpose of anomalous ionospheric detection. The ionospheric reference model (IRI) is employed to examine the accuracy of such empirical models for typical TEC (total electron content) values in Iran to determine any deviation from the normal ionospheric state. Two strong consecutive earthquakes with a magnitude of larger than 6 in the northeast of Iran were selected along with the GPS data from 5 ground stations within 50 km of the epicenter. The local ionospheric plasma density mapping using the GPS signal for earthquake prediction is studied. The results show a very promising temporal variation of local ionospheric plasma between the stations from 4 weeks to almost a week leading to the event. The deviation of TEC from the mean value between the five stations shows no enhancement or suppression of local plasma rather than a plasma motion. A very quiet PID signature could validate the lithosphere–atmosphere–ionosphere coupling (LAIC) process associated with pre-earthquake geochemical and dynamical mechanisms. To validate that the analyzed time period falls on the minimum of solar activity, the observed positive anomalies in the regional TEC correspond to fluctuations to pre-earthquake activity and not to geomagnetic activity, and the $K_p$ and $D_{st}$ indices are taken into consideration.