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Time–Frequency Characteristics of Tsunami Magnetic Signals from Four Pacific Ocean Events

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Global Tsunami Science: Past and Future, Volume I

Part of the book series: Pageoph Topical Volumes ((PTV))

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Abstract

The recent deployment of highly sensitive seafloor magnetometers coinciding with the deep solar minimum has provided excellent opportunities for observing tsunami electromagnetic signals. These fluctuating signals (periods ranging from 10–20 min) are generally found to be within \(\pm\) \(\sim\)1 nT and coincide with the arrival of the tsunami waves. Previous studies focused on tsunami electromagnetic characteristics, as well as modeling the signal for individual events. This study instead aims to provide the time–frequency characteristics for a range of tsunami signals and a method to separate the data’s noise using additional data from a remote observatory. We focus on four Pacific Ocean events of varying tsunami signal amplitude: (1) the 2011 Tohoku, Japan event (M9.0), (2) the 2010 Chile event (M8.8), (3) the 2009 Samoa event (M8.0) and, (4) the 2007 Kuril Islands event (M8.1). We find possible tsunami signals in high-pass filtered data and successfully isolate the signals from noise using a cross-wavelet analysis. The cross-wavelet analysis reveals that the longer period signals precede the stronger, shorter period signals. Our results are very encouraging for using tsunami magnetic signals in warning systems.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Colorado at Boulder, CIRES, Boulder, CO, USA

    N. R. Schnepf & C. Manoj

  2. National Centers for Environmental Information, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Boulder, CO, USA

    N. R. Schnepf & C. Manoj

  3. School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA

    C. An

  4. Department of Planetology, Kobe University, Kobe, Japan

    H. Sugioka

  5. Data Analysis Center for Geomagnetism and Space Magnetism, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan

    H. Toh

Authors
  1. N. R. Schnepf
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  2. C. Manoj
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  3. C. An
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  4. H. Sugioka
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  5. H. Toh
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Correspondence to N. R. Schnepf .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. U.S. Geological Survey MS 999, Middlefield Rd 345, 94025, Menlo Park, CA, USA

    Eric L Geist

  2. Georgia Inst of Technology Sch of Civil & Environmental Eng, Atlantic Dr 790, 30332, Atlanta, GA, USA

    Hermann M. Fritz

  3. Russian Academy of Sciences P.P. Shirshov Institute of Oceanology, Nakhimovski Prospect 36, 117997, Moskva, Russia

    Alexander B. Rabinovich

  4. Hokkado University, N10W8, Kita-ku, 060-0810, Sapporo, Japan

    Yuichiro Tanioka

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Schnepf, N.R., Manoj, C., An, C., Sugioka, H., Toh, H. (2016). Time–Frequency Characteristics of Tsunami Magnetic Signals from Four Pacific Ocean Events. In: Geist, E.L., Fritz, H.M., Rabinovich, A.B., Tanioka, Y. (eds) Global Tsunami Science: Past and Future, Volume I. Pageoph Topical Volumes. Birkhäuser, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-55480-8_14

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