Temporal and spatial analyses on seismo-electric anomalies associated with the 27 February 2010 M = 8.8 Chile earthquake observed by DEMETER satellite

Y.-y Ho (1) , J.-y Liu (2, 1, 3) , Michel Parrot (4) , Jean-Louis Pinçon (4)

1 Institute of Space Science [Taiwan]
2 National Space Program Origination
3 CSRSR - Center for Space and Remote Sensing Research [Taïwan]
4 LPC2E - Laboratoire de Physique et Chimie de l'Environnement et de l'Espace

This paper studies seismo-electromagnetic anomalies observed by the French satellite DEMETER (Detection of ElectroMagnetic Emissions Transmitted from Earthquake Regions) during the 27 February 2010 M = 8.8 Chile earthquake. The nighttime electron density (N e), electron temperature (T e), ion density (N i), ion temperature (T i) and whistler counts (C w) are investigated. A statistical analysis of the box-and-whisker method is applied to see if data of two or more groups under study are significantly different. A cross-examination of temporal variations before and after shows that N e and N i (C w) increases (decreases) appear 10–20 days before the earthquake. A comparison of data over the epicenter and those over its reference area can be employed to discriminate the earthquake-related anomalies from global effects. Results prove that anomalous enhancements of N e , N i , and T i occur specifically around the epicenter area. The intersection of the temporal and spatial results confirms that N e and N i are useful and sensitive detecting anomalous related to the 2010 M = 8.8 Chile earthquake.

Domains: Sciences of the Universe [physics]

Y.-y Ho, J.-y Liu, Michel Parrot, Jean-Louis Pinçon. Temporal and spatial analyses on seismo-electric anomalies associated with the 27 February 2010 M = 8.8 Chile earthquake observed by DEMETER satellite. Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences, 2013, 13, pp.3281-3289. ⟨10.5194/nhess-13-3281-2013⟩. ⟨insu-01178891⟩