Ionospheric remote sensing of the Denali Earthquake Rayleigh surface waves

Vesna Ducic (1) , Juliette Artru (1) , Philippe Lognonné (2)

1 IPGP - Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris
2 IPGP - Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris

Using the Global Positioning System, we have detected ionospheric disturbances associated with the long-period Rayleigh waves from the 2002 Denali earthquake (M s = 7.9). The dense California GPS networks allowed us to map the ionospheric perturbations and to compute the group velocity with a high spatial resolution above the Pacific coasts. Due to a low sampling rate, a large error in the velocity determination remains. Nonetheless, it demonstrates that bi-static remote sensing measurements of seismic waves with GPS networks can be performed. Monostatic measurements with a dedicated satellite could possibly be used to record in the ionosphere surface waves originating from large earthquakes. Such a space-based remote sensing of the local group velocity of Rayleigh surface waves would effectively complement the seismic networks for high-resolution global tomography of the Earth's lithosphere.

Domaines: Planète et Univers [physics]; Sciences de l'environnement; Physique [physics]

Vesna Ducic, Juliette Artru, Philippe Lognonné. Ionospheric remote sensing of the Denali Earthquake Rayleigh surface waves. Geophysical Research Letters, 2003, 30, ⟨10.1029/2003gl017812⟩. ⟨hal-03916873⟩