The first results of the pilot project on complex diagnosing earthquake precursors on Sakhalin

Abstract

The results of the first stage of the pilot project on the complex monitoring of the atmospheric and ionospheric parameters, conducted on the instructions of the Russian Federation Government in order to decrease risk of destructive earthquakes in the Far East, are presented. The experiment was performed before and during a strong (M = 6.3) earthquake that occurred on August 2, 2007, on Sakhalin. The meteorological data (relative humidity and temperature), cloudiness anomalies according to the TERRA and AQUA satellite data, thermal anomalies of outgoing IR radiation according to the NOAA satellite data, variations in the total electron content according to the GPS data, and tomographic reconstructions of the ionosphere vertical structure according to the TRANSIT satellite data have been analyzed. The indications, typical of earthquake preparation and previously presented in the publications devoted to studying earthquake precursors, have been detected in all analyzed parameters. Synchronism and localization of the anomalies, registered using different methods in different geophysical fields, make it possible to assume that these anomalies have a common source, which could be the earthquake preparation process that is explained using the developed complex model of the lithosphere-atmosphere-ionosphere coupling (LAIC).