Eur. Phys. J. Special Topics 230, 197-225 (2021)
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjst/e2020-000251-3

Regular Article

Atmospheric and ionospheric coupling phenomena associated with large earthquakes

¹ LPC2E/CNRS, Orléans 45045, France
² University of Basilicata, 85100 Potenza, Italy
³ National Central University, 32001 Taoyuan, Taiwan
⁴ Space Research Institute, 117810 Moscow, Russia
⁵ Chapman University, 92866 Orange, USA
⁶ Graduate School of Science, Chiba University, Chiba 263-8522, Japan
⁷ Murmansk State Technical University, 183010 Murmansk, Russia

^a e-mail: mparrot@cnrs-orleans.fr

Received: 2 October 2020
Accepted: 7 October 2020
Published online: 19 January 2021

Abstract

This paper explores multi-instrument space-borne observations in order to validate physical concepts of Lithosphere-Atmosphere-Ionosphere Coupling (LAIC) in relation to a selection of major seismic events. In this study we apply some validated techniques to observations in order to identify atmospheric and ionospheric precursors associated with some of recent most destructive earthquakes: M8.6 of March 28, 2005 and M8.5 of Sept. 12, 2007 in Sumatra, and M7.9 of May 12, 2008 in Wenchuan, China. New investigations are also presented concerning these three earthquakes and for the M7.2 of March 2008 in the Xinjiang-Xizang border region, China (the Yutian earthquake). It concerns the ionospheric density, the Global Ionospheric Maps (GIM) of the Total Electron Content (TEC), the Thermal Infra-Red (TIR) anomalies, and the Outgoing Longwave Radiation (OLR) data. It is shown that all these anomalies are identified as short-term precursors, which can be explained by the LAIC concept proposed in [S. Pulinets, D. Ouzounov, J. Asian Earth Sci. 41, 371 (2011)].