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Tridimensional reconstruction of the Co-Seismic Ionospheric Disturbance around the time of 2015 Nepal earthquake

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Abstract

The Co-Seismic Ionospheric Disturbance of the 2015 Nepal earthquake is analyzed in this paper. GNSS data are used to obtain the Satellite-Station TEC sequences. After removing the de-trended TEC variation, a clear ionospheric disturbance was observed 10 min after the earthquake, while the geomagnetic conditions, solar activity, and weather condition remained calm according to the Kp, Dst, F10.7 indices and meteorological records during the period of interest. Computerized ionosphere tomography (CIT) is then used to present the tridimensional ionosphere variation with a 10-min time resolution. The CIT results indicate that (1) the disturbance of the ionospheric electron density above the epicenter during the 2015 Nepal earthquake is confined at a relatively low altitude (approximately 150–300 km); (2) the ionospheric disturbances on the west side and east sides of the epicenter are precisely opposite. A newly established electric field penetration model of the lithosphere–atmosphere–ionosphere coupling is used to investigate the potential physical mechanism.

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Acknowledgements

We acknowledge the CMONOC for providing the GPS data via the GNSS Center at Wuhan University, the UNAVCO for providing the Nepal network data, the IGS for providing the orbit data, and the National Science & Technology Infrastructure of China, National Earth System Science Data Sharing Infrastructure (http://www.geodata.cn), for providing the base maps in this paper. We also thank NASA for providing magnetic index data and the ACE Science Center for providing F10.7 data. This research was financially supported by the National Natural Fund of China (41274022, 41604002, and 41574028), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (2042016kf0037), and Key Laboratory of Geo-informatics of State Bureau of Surveying and Mapping Fund (16-02-04).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Chinese Antarctic Center of Surveying and Mapping, Wuhan University, Wuhan, 430079, China

    Jian Kong & Zemin Wang

  2. School of Geodesy and Geomatics, Wuhan University, Wuhan, 430079, China

    Yibin Yao, Changzhi Zhai & Lei Liu

  3. School of Electronic Information, Wuhan University, Wuhan, 430072, China

    Chen Zhou & Yi Liu

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  1. Jian Kong
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  2. Yibin Yao
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  3. Chen Zhou
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  4. Yi Liu
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  5. Changzhi Zhai
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  6. Zemin Wang
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  7. Lei Liu
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Correspondence to Yibin Yao.

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Kong, J., Yao, Y., Zhou, C. et al. Tridimensional reconstruction of the Co-Seismic Ionospheric Disturbance around the time of 2015 Nepal earthquake. J Geod 92, 1255–1266 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00190-018-1117-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00190-018-1117-3

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