Statistical Research on Seismo-Ionospheric Ion Density Enhancements Observed via DEMETER

Abstract

In this paper, in order to investigate the correlation between seismic activity and ionospheric density variation, nighttime ion density (Ni) data from IAP onboard the Detection of Electro-Magnetic Emissions Transmitted from Earthquake Regions (DEMETER) satellite from 2005 to 2010 are used to carry out statistical analysis. Only data with kp ≤ 3 are selected to avoid density perturbations due to magnetic activity. The aftershocks are also carefully removed. The earthquake-related data were further strictly screened, and the apparent position of anomalies were normalized using Dobrovolsky’s radius. Real and pseudorandom earthquakes are compared and analyzed. The statistical results show that the postseismic effect is obvious; the Ni enhancements are more focused 3–5 days, 9–10 days, and 13–14 days before the earthquake; as the magnitude of earthquake increases, the apparent range and intensity of the ion density enhancements is also increased; and for medium–strong earthquakes, the position of disturbance will exceed Dobrovolsky’s radius.

Keywords

• earthquake
• Dobrovolsky’s radius
• ion density
• DEMETER
• postseismic effect