Abstract
Coseismic ionospheric disturbances (CIDs) associated with the 2011 Tohoku earthquake off the Pacific coast (Mw 9.0, Tohoku EQ) were examined using total electron content and seismic wave data. A faster CID propagated at ~3.0 km/s only in the west-southwest, while a slower CID propagated concentrically at 1.2 km/s or slower from the tsunami source area. Taking the propagation speed and oscillation cycle into account, the faster CID was associated with a Rayleigh wave, but the slower CID was associated with an acoustic or gravity wave. The north-south asymmetry of the CID associated with the Rayleigh wave suggests that the Rayleigh wave did not act as a point source of the acoustic wave because a point source propagating in all directions must produce symmetric CID in all directions. Therefore, a superimposed wave front of acoustic waves was excited by the Rayleigh wave and produced the north-south asymmetry of the faster CID due to the magnetic inclination effect, which is different from a well-known north-south asymmetry of CID excited at the epicenter. On the other hand, above and south of the tsunami source area, the CID with a period of 4 min was excited by a point source located at the tsunami source area because atmospheric waves propagating from a point source produce north-south asymmetry in the resulting CID.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 905-911 |
Number of pages | 7 |
Journal | Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics |
Volume | 118 |
Issue number | 2 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Feb 2013 |
Keywords
- Rayleigh wave
- Tohoku earthquake
- acoustic wave
- coseismic ionospheric disturbance
- total electron content
- tsunami