Abstract
By using data from the GPS network, we observed exceptional intensive quasi-periodical perturbations of the total electron content (TEC) caused by the great Sumatra-Andaman earthquake on 26 December 2004. The time period of the variations was about 15 min, their duration was about 1 hour. The amplitude of the TEC oscillations exceeded the amplitude of “background” fluctuations in this range of periods by one order of magnitude, at a minimum. They were registered 2–7 hours after the main shock at a distance from 1000 to 5000 km, both on the northwest and northeast outward from the epicenter. The most probable source of the observed oscillations appeared to be a seismic airwave generated by the sudden vertical displacement of the Earth’s surface near the epicenter.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Afraimovich, E. L., GPS global detection of the ionospheric response to solar flares, Radio Science, 35(6), 1417–1424, 2000.
Afraimovich, E. L., N. P. Perevalova, A. V. Plotnikov, and A. M. Uralov, The shock-acoustic waves generated by the earthquakes, Annales Geophysicae,19, 395–409, 2001a.
Afraimovich, E. L., E. A. Kosogorov, O. S. Lesyuta, I. I. Ushakov, and A. F. Yakovets, Geomagnetic control of the spectrum of traveling ionospheric disturbances based on data from a global GPS network, Annales Geophysicae,19, 723–731, 2001b.
Afraimovich, E. L., V. V. Kirushkin, and N. P. Perevalova, Determination of the characteristics of ionospheric disturbance in the near zone of the earthquake epicenter, J. Communications Technology and Electronics,47, 739–747, 2002.
Afraimovich E. L., N. P. Perevalova, and S. V. Voyeikov, Traveling wave packets of total electron content disturbances as deduced from global GPS network data, J. Atmos. Solar-Terr. Phys., 65, 1245–1262, 2003.
Afraimovich, E. L., E. I. Astafieva, V. V. Demyanov, I. F. Gamayunov, T. N. Kondakova, S. V. Voeykov, and B. Tsegmed, Ionospheric, Geomagnetic Variations and GPS Positioning Errors During the Major Magnetic Storm on 29–31 October 2003, International Reference Ionosphere News, 11(3, 4), 10–14, 2004a.
Afraimovich, E. L., Yu. B. Bashkuev, O. I. Berngardt, A. V. Gatsutsev, M. G. Dembelov, B. G. Shpynev, V. A. Kobzar, D. S. Kushnarev, V. Yu. Musin, P. Yu. Pushkin, and N. P. Perevalova, Detection of Traveling Ionospheric Disturbances from the Data of Simultaneous Measurements of the Electron Concentration, Total Electron Content, and Doppler Frequency Shift at the ISTP Radiophysical Complex, Geomagnetism and Aeronomy, 44(4), 463–475, 2004b.
Afraimovich, E. L., E. I. Astafieva, and V. V. Kirushkin, Ionospheric Disturbance in the Near-Region of an Earthquake Epicenter on 25 September 2003, Radiophysics and Quantum Electronics, 48(4), 299–313, 2005.
Afraimovich, E. L., E. I. Astafieva, and V. V. Kirushkin, Localization of the source of ionospheric disturbance generated during an earthquake, International J. Geomagnetism and Aeronomy, 6, GI2002, doi:10.1029/2004GI000092, 2006.
Artru, J., T. Farges, and P. Lognonne, Acoustic waves generated from seismic surface waves: propagation properties determined from Doppler sounding observations and normal-mode modeling, Geophys. J. Int., 158, 1067–1077, 2004.
Bilham, R., R. Engdahl, N. Feldl, and S. P. Satyabala, Partial and complete rupture of the Indo-Andaman plate boundary 1847–2004, Seism. Res. Lett., 76, 299–311, 2005.
Bolt, B. A., Seismic air waves from the great 1964 Alaskan earthquake, Nature, 202, 1094–1095, 1964.
Calais, E. and J. B. Minster, GPS detection of ionospheric perturbations following the January 1994, Northridge earthquake, Geophys. Res. Lett., 22, 1045–1048, 1995.
Davies, K. and D. M. Baker, Ionospheric effects observed around the time of the Alaskan earthquake of March 28, 1964, J. Geophys. Res., 70, 2251–2253, 1965.
Ducic, V., J. Artru, and P. Lognonne, Ionospheric remote sensing of the Denali Earthquake Rayleigh surface wave, Geophys. Res. Lett., 30(18), 1951, doi:10.1029/2003GL017812, 2003.
Francis, S. H., A theory of medium-scale traveling ionospheric disturbances, J. Geophys. Res., 79(34), 5245–5260, 1974.
Golitsyn, G. S. and V. I. Klyatskin, Atmosphere oscillations caused by Earth’s surface displacement, Izvestiya, Atmospheric Oceanic Physics, 3, 1044–1052, 1967.
Heki, K. and J.-S. Ping, Directivity and apparent velocity of the coseismic ionospheric disturbances observed with a dense GPS array, Earth Planet Sci. Lett., 236, 845–855, 2005.
Hofmann-Wellenhof, B., H. Lichtenegger, and J. Collins, Global Positioning System: Theory and Practice, Springer-Verlag, Vienna, New York, 327 p, 1992.
Huang, Y.-N., C. Kang, and S.-W. Chen, On the detection of acousticgravity waves generated by typhon by use of real time HF Doppler frequency shift sounding system, Radio Sci., 20, 897–906, 1985.
Hung, R. G., T. Phan, and R. E. Smith, Observation of gravity waves during the extreme tornado outbreak of 3 April 1974, J. Atmos. Solar-Terr. Phys., 40, 831–843, 1978.
Klobuchar, J. A., Ionospheric time-delay algorithm for single-frequency GPS users, IEEE Transactions on Aerospace and Electronics System, 23(3), 325–331, 1986.
Khan, S. A. and O. Gudmundsson, GPS analyses of the Sumatra-Andaman earthquake, EOS, Transactions, AGU, 86(9), 89–100, 2005.
Liu, C. H., J. Klostermeyer, K. C. Yeh, T. B. Jones, T. Robinson, O. Holt, R. Leitinger, T. Ogawa, K. Sinno, S. Kato, T. Ogawa, A. J. Bedard, and L. Kersley, Global dynamic responses of the atmosphere to the eruption of mount St. Helens on May 18, 1980, J. Geophys. Res., 87(A8), 6281–6290, 1982.
Liu, J. Y., Y. B. Tsai, S. W. Chen, S. P. Lee, Y. C. Chen, H. Y. Yen, W. Y. Chang, and C. Liu, Giant ionospheric disturbances excited by the M9.3 Sumatra earthquake of 26 December 2004, Geophys. Res. Lett., 33, L02103, doi:10.1029/2005GL023963, 2006.
Obayashi, T., Upper atmospheric disturbances due to high altitude nuclear explosions, Planet. Space Sci., 10, 47–63, 1963.
Oksman, J. and M. Kivinen, Ionospheric gravity waves caused by nuclear explosions, Geophysica, 9, 119–130, 1965.
Pekeris, C. L., The propagation of a pulse in the atmosphere, R. Soc. London Ser. A, A171, 434–449, 1939.
Pokhotelov, O. A., M. Parrot, E. N. Fedorov, V. A. Pilipenko, V. V. Surkov, and V. A. Gladychev, Response of ionosphere to natural and man-made acoustic sources, Annales Geophysicae, 13, 1197–1210, 1995.
Press, F. and D. Harkrider, Propagation of acoustic-gravity waves in the atmosphere, J. Geophys. Res., 67, 3889–3908, 1962.
Roberts, D. H., J. A. Klobuchar, P. F. Fougere, and D. H. Hendrickson, A large-amplitude traveling ionospheric disturbance produced by the May 18, 1980, explosion of Mount St. Helens, J. Geophys. Res., 87(A8), 6291–6301, 1982.
Roder, H., T. Braun, W. Schunmann, E. Boschi, R. Buttner, and B. Zimanovsky, Great Sumatra earthquake registers on electrostatic sensor, EOS, Transactions AGU, 86, 45, 449–450, 8 November 2005.
Row, R. V., Acoustic-gravity waves in the upper atmosphere due to a nuclear detonation and an earthquake, J. Geophys. Res., 72, 1599–1610, 1967.
Stein, S. and E. A. Okal, Speed and size of the Sumatra earthquake, Nature, 434, 581–582, 2005.
Tanaka, T., T. Ichinose, T. Okuzawa, T. Shibata, Y. Sato, C. Nagasawa, and T. Ogawa, HF-Doppler observations of acoustic waves excited by the Urakawa-Oki earthquake on 21 March 1982, J. Atmos. Terr. Phys., 46, 233–245, 1984.
Whipple, F. J. W., The great siberian meteor and the waves, seismic and aerial, which it produced, Quart. J. Roy. Met. Soc., 56, 287–304, 1930.
Yuen, P. C., P. F. Weaver, R. K. Suzuki, and A. S. Furumoto, Continuous travelling coupling between seismic waves and the ionosphere evident in May 1968 Japan earthquake data, J. Geophys. Res.,74(9), 2256–2264, 1969.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made.
The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder.
To view a copy of this licence, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
About this article
Cite this article
Astafyeva, E.I., Afraimovich, E.L. Long-distance traveling ionospheric disturbances caused by the great Sumatra-Andaman earthquake on 26 December 2004. Earth Planet Sp 58, 1025–1031 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1186/BF03352607
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/BF03352607