Directivity of Coseismic Ionospheric Disturbances Propagation Following the 2016 West Sumatra Earthquake Using Three-Dimensional Tomography GNSS-TEC

Abstract

Ionospheric disturbances caused by the 2016 West Sumatra earthquake have been studied using total electron content (TEC) measurements by Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) observation stations evenly distributed in Sumatra and Java, Indonesia. Previous observation focused on the coseismic ionospheric disturbances (CID) detected 11–16 min after the earthquake. The maximum TEC amplitude measured was 2.9 TECU (TEC Unit) with speed between 1 and 1.72 km/s. A comprehensive analysis needs to be done to see how the growth and direction of the movement of the CID due to the earthquake is using the 3D tomography method. The dimensions of 3D tomographic model are setup to 1° × 1.2° × 75 km. The continuity constraints were used to stabilize the solution, and multiple resolution tests with synthetic data were conducted to evaluate the precision of the results. This research focuses on the anomalous movement of the ionosphere observed in three dimensions. From the model, the positive anomaly initially appeared 11 min after the earthquake at the altitude of 300 km, which is the highest ionization layer and correspond to the electron density profile using IRI model. The anomalous movement appeared 12 min after the mainshock and moved 1° toward the geomagnetic field every minute. The density anomaly of the ionosphere began to weaken 8 min after the appearance of CID. To check the accuracy of the 3D tomography model, we carried out two types of tests, namely checkerboard resolution test and the second resolution test.