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Anomalous variations of VLF sub-ionospheric signal and Mesospheric Ozone prior to 2015 Gorkha Nepal Earthquake

The subject of pre-earthquake ionospheric signatures has always been contentious and debatable. Some of the previous reports have documented unforeseen and unusual variations in some of the atmospheric and ionospheric parameters well before an earthquake. Here, we analyze the ionospheric response fr...

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Autores principales: Phanikumar, D. V., Maurya, Ajeet K., Kumar, Kondapalli Niranjan, Venkatesham, K., Singh, Rajesh, Sharma, S., Naja, M.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Nature Publishing Group UK 2018
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6010448/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29925887
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-27659-9
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author Phanikumar, D. V.
Maurya, Ajeet K.
Kumar, Kondapalli Niranjan
Venkatesham, K.
Singh, Rajesh
Sharma, S.
Naja, M.
author_facet Phanikumar, D. V.
Maurya, Ajeet K.
Kumar, Kondapalli Niranjan
Venkatesham, K.
Singh, Rajesh
Sharma, S.
Naja, M.
author_sort Phanikumar, D. V.
collection PubMed
description The subject of pre-earthquake ionospheric signatures has always been contentious and debatable. Some of the previous reports have documented unforeseen and unusual variations in some of the atmospheric and ionospheric parameters well before an earthquake. Here, we analyze the ionospheric response from the Indian Subcontinent to Nepal Gorkha Earthquakes occurred between April and May 2015, which were the most powerful and disastrous natural calamities in past ~80 years over the Himalayan region left ~9000 causalities and more than ~20000 people injured with the property damage of the order of several billion dollars. In view of severe earthquakes occurrences, their prior information on the shorter time scales are warranted for mitigation of associated disasters. Here, we report for the first time, a case which shows a strong link in anomalous variations between VLF sub-ionospheric signal and mesospheric ozone prior to both April 25, 2015 (M(w) = 7.8) earthquake and its biggest aftershock on May 12, 2015 (M(w) = 7.3). Observations show an unusual variation in VLF signals amplitude /shift in terminator time (TT) strongly linked with positive (negative) mesospheric ozone anomaly in D-region altitudes prior to the Gorkha Nepal earthquakes. It is surmised that simultaneous continuous observations of both VLF waves and mesospheric ozone can be considered as an important tool to identify the prior earthquake signatures in the vicinity of the extremely earthquake-prone zone such as Himalayan region. In this context, the current report opens up a new dimension in lithosphere-atmosphere-ionosphere coupling during the earthquake preparation processes itself.
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spelling pubmed-60104482018-07-06 Anomalous variations of VLF sub-ionospheric signal and Mesospheric Ozone prior to 2015 Gorkha Nepal Earthquake Phanikumar, D. V. Maurya, Ajeet K. Kumar, Kondapalli Niranjan Venkatesham, K. Singh, Rajesh Sharma, S. Naja, M. Sci Rep Article The subject of pre-earthquake ionospheric signatures has always been contentious and debatable. Some of the previous reports have documented unforeseen and unusual variations in some of the atmospheric and ionospheric parameters well before an earthquake. Here, we analyze the ionospheric response from the Indian Subcontinent to Nepal Gorkha Earthquakes occurred between April and May 2015, which were the most powerful and disastrous natural calamities in past ~80 years over the Himalayan region left ~9000 causalities and more than ~20000 people injured with the property damage of the order of several billion dollars. In view of severe earthquakes occurrences, their prior information on the shorter time scales are warranted for mitigation of associated disasters. Here, we report for the first time, a case which shows a strong link in anomalous variations between VLF sub-ionospheric signal and mesospheric ozone prior to both April 25, 2015 (M(w) = 7.8) earthquake and its biggest aftershock on May 12, 2015 (M(w) = 7.3). Observations show an unusual variation in VLF signals amplitude /shift in terminator time (TT) strongly linked with positive (negative) mesospheric ozone anomaly in D-region altitudes prior to the Gorkha Nepal earthquakes. It is surmised that simultaneous continuous observations of both VLF waves and mesospheric ozone can be considered as an important tool to identify the prior earthquake signatures in the vicinity of the extremely earthquake-prone zone such as Himalayan region. In this context, the current report opens up a new dimension in lithosphere-atmosphere-ionosphere coupling during the earthquake preparation processes itself. Nature Publishing Group UK 2018-06-20 /pmc/articles/PMC6010448/ /pubmed/29925887 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-27659-9 Text en © The Author(s) 2018 Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
spellingShingle Article
Phanikumar, D. V.
Maurya, Ajeet K.
Kumar, Kondapalli Niranjan
Venkatesham, K.
Singh, Rajesh
Sharma, S.
Naja, M.
Anomalous variations of VLF sub-ionospheric signal and Mesospheric Ozone prior to 2015 Gorkha Nepal Earthquake
title Anomalous variations of VLF sub-ionospheric signal and Mesospheric Ozone prior to 2015 Gorkha Nepal Earthquake
title_full Anomalous variations of VLF sub-ionospheric signal and Mesospheric Ozone prior to 2015 Gorkha Nepal Earthquake
title_fullStr Anomalous variations of VLF sub-ionospheric signal and Mesospheric Ozone prior to 2015 Gorkha Nepal Earthquake
title_full_unstemmed Anomalous variations of VLF sub-ionospheric signal and Mesospheric Ozone prior to 2015 Gorkha Nepal Earthquake
title_short Anomalous variations of VLF sub-ionospheric signal and Mesospheric Ozone prior to 2015 Gorkha Nepal Earthquake
title_sort anomalous variations of vlf sub-ionospheric signal and mesospheric ozone prior to 2015 gorkha nepal earthquake
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6010448/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29925887
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-27659-9
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