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CSES Electron Density Background Characterization and Preliminary Investigation of Possible Ne Increase Before Earthquake Occurrence

Session: Application of Remote Sensing and Space-Based Earth Observations Data in Earthquake Research II

Type: Oral

Date: 4/22/2021

Presentation Time: 05:45 PM Pacific

Description: 

This year will be the third one that the China Seismo Electromagnetic Satellite (CSES-01), is successfully in orbit, from its launch on 2nd February 2018. At present, this is the only satellite in orbit fully dedicated to search for earthquake precursors in the ionosphere. The payload on board consists of a High Precision Magnetometer (HPM) and a Search-Coil Magnetometer (SCM) to monitor the magnetic field, an Electric Field Detector (EFD) to measure the electric field, a Plasma analyzer (PAP), two Langmuir probes (LAP), a GNSS Occultation Receiver and a Tri-Band Beacon, to measure the plasma properties in ionosphere, and two High-Energy Particle Detectors (HEPD, HEPP) to measure the particle flux and energy spectrum (the HEPD is provided by the Italian National Institute of Nuclear Physics, in an international agreement between China National Space Administration, China Earthquake Administration and Italian Space Agency).

In this work, the first monthly background of the electron density (Ne) measured by CSES-01 LAP is provided. Due to the Sun-synchronous orbit, it is possible to characterise the ionosphere at two fixed local times: ~2 AM for nighttime and ~2 PM for daytime. The data inside equatorial and mid-latitude regions (i.e. inside -50 and + 50 latitude) are analysed. Only the geomagnetic quiet time has been considered because the ultimate purpose of estimating this background is to search for possible anomalies induced by seismic activity. Each year (2018, 2019 and 2020) has been separately analysed to take into account the variation of the solar activity (from minimum of solar cycle 24 toward next maximum of the present solar cycle 25). The long-term trend of the background has been depicted.

Finally, a preliminary analysis of the satellite Ne anomalous samples that are significantly higher than the background are investigated for a possible correlation with the concurring earthquakes, as proposed by previous works on past and present other satellites, such as DEMETER (e.g. Li and Parrot, JGR, 2013) and Swarm (e.g. De Santis et al., SR, 2019).

Presenting Author: Dedalo Marchetti

Student Presenter: No

Authors