Seismo-ionospheric coupling appearing as equatorial electron density enhancements observed via DEMETER electron density measurements

Abstract

We report the processes and results of statistical analysis on the ionospheric electron density data measured by the Detection of Electro-Magnetic Emissions Transmitted from Earthquake Regions (DEMETER) satellite over a period of 6years (2005-2010), in order to investigate the correlation between seismic activity and equatorial plasma density variations. To simplify the analysis, three equatorial regions with frequent earthquakes were selected and then one-dimensional time series analysis between the daily seismic activity indices and the equatorial ionization anomaly (EIA) intensity indices, which represent relative equatorial electron density increase, were performed for each region. The statistically significant values of the lagged cross-correlation function, particularly in the region with minimal effects of longitudinal asymmetry, indicate that some of the very large earthquakes with M > 5.0 in the low-latitude region can accompany observable precursory and concurrent EIA enhancements, even though the seismic activity is not the most significant driver of the equatorial ionospheric evolution. The physical mechanisms of the seismo-ionospheric coupling is consistent with our observation, and the possibility of earthquake prediction using the EIA intensity variation is discussed.