Atmospheric temperature coherent variations effects, preceding strong earthquakes

Abstract

We analyzed satellite measurements of temperature at upper troposphere/lower stratosphere (UTLS) levels separated by the tropopause above the epicentral area of a strong earthquake with a magnitude of M=7.3 in the Northern Tien-Shan (Kyrgyzstan) that took place on August 19, 1992. The developed algorithm and method of continuous wavelet transform allowed detecting of abnormal behavior, temporal, spatial and spectral coherence of short-period temperature variations, preceding the seismic event. The results show that the spatial structure and dynamics of temperature anomalies in the area of UTLS have a sufficiently stable relation to seismic activity.