Long-distance traveling ionospheric disturbances caused by the great Sumatra-Andaman earthquake on 26 December 2004

• Published in: Earth, planets, and space Vol. 58; no. 8; pp. 1025 - 1031
• Main Authors: Astafyeva, Elvira I., Afraimovich, Edward L.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Tokyo Terra 01.01.2006
• ISSN: 1880-5981; 1343-8832; 1880-5981
• DOI: 10.1186/BF03352607

By using data from the GPS network, we observed exceptional intensive quasi-periodical perturbations of the total electron content (TEC) caused by the great Sumatra-Andaman earthquake on 26 December 2004. The time period of the variations was about 15 min, their duration was about 1 hour. The amplitude of the TEC oscillations exceeded the amplitude of “background” fluctuations in this range of periods by one order of magnitude, at a minimum. They were registered 2–7 hours after the main shock at a distance from 1000 to 5000 km, both on the northwest and northeast outward from the epicenter. The most probable source of the observed oscillations appeared to be a seismic airwave generated by the sudden vertical displacement of the Earth’s surface near the epicenter.