TY - JOUR
T1 - Tracking the epicenter and the tsunami origin with GPS ionosphere observation
AU - Tsai, Ho Fang
AU - Liu, Jann Yenq
AU - Lin, Chien Hung
AU - Chen, Chia Hung
N1 - Funding Information:
Acknowledgments. This research was partially supported by National Science Council and National Space Organization in Taiwan under grant NSC 98-2116-M-008-006-MY3 and NSPO-S-100011, respectively. GPS observation files used in this work were provided by the Geospatial Information Authority of Japan (GSI), Central Weather Bureau of Taiwan (CWB), and International GNSS Service (IGS).
PY - 2011
Y1 - 2011
N2 - The global positioning system (GPS) can be used to monitor the seismic perturbation induced by the 2011 off the Pacific coast of Tohoku Earthquake (magnitude 9.0), Japan, on March 11, 2011, and to trace the tsunami across the Pacific Ocean by measuring the changes in the ionospheric total electron content (TEC). We estimate the vertical and horizontal mean speeds of the seismic and tsunami waves using the time and distance of the TEC perturbation, and then, taking into account those determined speeds, trace back to the epicenter and the tsunami origin by applying a 3-dimensional spherical model. The results show that both the tracked epicenter and the tsunami origin are quite close to the epicenter reported by the USGS, with a mean horizontal propagation speed of 2.3 km/s after the earthquake and about 210 m/s after the tsunami. This consistency confirms that the perturbation sources in the ionosphere are due to the earthquake. This implies that the GPS-TEC measurements have the potential to be part of a lower cost, ground-based, tsunami monitoring system.
AB - The global positioning system (GPS) can be used to monitor the seismic perturbation induced by the 2011 off the Pacific coast of Tohoku Earthquake (magnitude 9.0), Japan, on March 11, 2011, and to trace the tsunami across the Pacific Ocean by measuring the changes in the ionospheric total electron content (TEC). We estimate the vertical and horizontal mean speeds of the seismic and tsunami waves using the time and distance of the TEC perturbation, and then, taking into account those determined speeds, trace back to the epicenter and the tsunami origin by applying a 3-dimensional spherical model. The results show that both the tracked epicenter and the tsunami origin are quite close to the epicenter reported by the USGS, with a mean horizontal propagation speed of 2.3 km/s after the earthquake and about 210 m/s after the tsunami. This consistency confirms that the perturbation sources in the ionosphere are due to the earthquake. This implies that the GPS-TEC measurements have the potential to be part of a lower cost, ground-based, tsunami monitoring system.
KW - 2011 Tohoku earthquake
KW - GPS
KW - Ionospheric total electron content
KW - TEC
KW - Tsunami
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=83155165348&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.5047/eps.2011.06.024
DO - 10.5047/eps.2011.06.024
M3 - 期刊論文
AN - SCOPUS:83155165348
SN - 1343-8832
VL - 63
SP - 859
EP - 862
JO - Earth, Planets and Space
JF - Earth, Planets and Space
IS - 7
ER -