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IUGG XXIV General Assembly July 2-13, 2007 Perugia, Italy
(S) - IASPEI - International Association of Seismology and Physics of the Earth's
Interior
JSS010 Oral Presentation 2068
Seismogenic ionospheric disturbances and planned satellite experiment
Prof. Valery Korepanov
Laboratory for EM Investigations Lviv Center of Institute of Space Research IAGA
Georgy Lizunov, Yury Yampolsky, Fedir Dudkin
A great number of experimental observations of ionospheric disturbances stimulated by seismic events
are described in numerous papers and books. But till now two key (principal) questions of these
investigations are still open: what is a transport mechanism of co-seismic and especially pre-seismic
perturbations to the ionospheric altitudes; how big has to be the energy of pre-seismic (precursory)
signals in order the ionospheric precursors of seismic events could be observed at the background of
natural variations from other sources. Taking into account a great importance of any information about
such catastrophic natural hazards as earthquakes, volcano eruptions, tsunamis for the mankind, every
progress at this way is welcome. In this paper both these questions are discussed. First the
experimental results obtained with satellite and ground measurements of some physical parameter
variations are analyzed, and the conclusion is made that the best candidate for such an energy
transport from ground to ionosphere are atmospheric gravity waves (AGW). The executed experiments
and theoretical analysis allowed restoring the AGW parameters which may create an observable
ionospheric response to the lithosphere/atmosphere powerful processes. The probability to find the
answer to the second question how big should be energy of lithospheric source in order it may be
projected at the ionospheric heights is discussed. The calculations were made to estimate this energy
from above which gave non-realistic value. But from another hand enough simple calculations show that
quite realistic thermal variation about 0.3 K is already enough for AGW generation which evolution with
height will create rather strong density perturbation in E-region about 10%. So, this needs further
study, both theoretic and experimental. New satellite mission IONOSATS is planned now for detailed
experimental study of the described processes. The IONOSATS project is proposed by National Space
Agency of Ukraine for the First European Space Program, as well as for Space Weather (SW) Program
as a part of GMES. One of the project purposes is long-term spatial-temporal monitoring of main field
and plasma parameters of ionosphere with the aim to extract the signatures of natural and technogenic
catastrophic events in the lower atmosphere and at the Earths surface with the help of a cluster of 3
LEO microsatellites. Tentative launch data is 2010 year. All spacecrafts will have the same payload
including AC and DC magnetometers, electric field probes, Langmuir probes, neutral particle density and
temperature probes. This study was partially supported by NSAU Contract 1-02/03 and the STCU Project
-3165.
Keywords: earthquake, precursor, ionosphere