GPS World - February 2008 - (Page 52)

INNOVATION | System Design & Test potentially make it much more effective due to the significantly increased area of coverage and timeliness of confirmation. In this article, we’ll take a look at the current state of the art in modeling tsunami-generated ionospheric perturbations and the status of attempts to monitor those perturbations using GPS. Some Background Pioneering work by the Canadian atmospheric physicist Colin Hines in the 1970s suggested that tsunami-related IGWs in the atmosphere over the oceanic regions, while interacting with the ionospheric plasma, might produce signatures detectable by radio sounding. In June 2001, an episodic perturbation was observed following a tsunamigenic earthquake in Peru. After its propagation across the Pacific Ocean (taking about 22 hours), the tsunami reached the Japanese coast and its signature in the ionosphere was detected by the Japanese GPS dense network (GEONET). The perturbation, shown in FIGURE 2, has an arrival time and characteristic period consistent with the tsunami propagation determined from independent methods. Unfortunately, similar signatures in the ionosphere are also produced by IGWs associated with traveling ionospheric disturbances (TIDs), and are commonly observed in the TEC data. However, the known azimuth, arrival time, and structure of the tsunami allows us to use this data source, even if it contains background TIDs. The December 26, 2004, Sumatra earthquake, with a magnitude of 9.3, was an order of magnitude larger than the Peru event and was the first earthquake and tsunami of magnitude larger than 9 of the so-called “human digital era,” comparable to the magnitude 9.5 Chilean earthquake of May 22, 1960. In addition to seismic waves registered by global seismic networks, the Sumatra event produced infragravity waves (longperiod wave motions with typical periods of 50 to 200 seconds) remotely observed from the island of Diego Garcia, perturbations in the magnetic field observed by the CHAMP satellite, and a series of ionospheric anomalies. Two types of ionospheric anomaly were observed: anomalies of the first type, detected worldwide in the first few hours after the earthquake, were reported from north of Sumatra, in Europe, and in Japan. They are associated with the surface seismic waves that propagate around the world after an earthquake rupture (socalled Rayleigh waves). Anomalies of the second type were detected above the ocean and were clearly associated with the tsunami. In the Indian Ocean, the occurrence times of TEC perturbations observed using ground-based GPS receivers and satellite altimeters were consistent with the observed tsunami propagation speed. The GPS observations from sites to the north of Sumatra show internal gravity waves most likely coupled with the tsunami or generated at the source and propagating independently in the atmosphere. The link with the tsunami is more evident in the observations elsewhere in the Indian Ocean. The TEC perturbations observed by the other ground-based GPS receivers moved horizontally with a velocity coherent with the tsunami propagation. 52 GPS World | February 2008 p QUICKBIRD SATELLITE IMAGE of Kalutara Beach on the south- western coast of Sri Lanka showing the receding waters and beach damage from the Sumatra tsunami. p FIGURE 2 The observed signal for the June 23, 2001, tsunami (initi- ated offshore Peru). Total electron content variations are plotted at the ionosphere pierce points. A wave-like disturbance is seen propagating toward the coast of Honshu, the main island of Japan. The amplitude of the observed TEC perturbations is strongly dependent on the filter method used. The four TECU-level peakto-peak variations in filtered GPS TEC measurements from north of Sumatra are coherent with the differential TEC at the 0.4 TECU per 30 seconds level observed in the rest of the Indian Ocean. (One TEC unit or TECU is 1016 electrons per metersquared, equivalent to 0.162 meters of range delay at the GPS L1 frequency.) Such magnitudes can be detected using GPS measurements since GPS phase observables are sensitive to TEC fluctuations at the 0.01 TECU level. We emphasize also the role of the elevation angle in the detection of tsunamigenic perturbations in the ionosphere. As a consequence of the integrated nature of TEC and the vertical structure of the tsunamigenic perturbation, low-elevation angle geometry is more sensitive to the tsunami signature in the GPS data, hence it is more visible. The TEC perturbation observed at the Cocos Islands by GPS can be compared with the co-located tide-gauge (Figure 1). The tsunami signature in the data from the two different instruments shows a similar waveform, confirming the sensitivity of the ionospheric measurement to the tsunami structure. The link between the tsunami at sea level and the perturbation observed in the ionosphere has been demonstrated www.gpsworld.com http://www.gpsworld.com

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GPS World - February 2008 Contents Out in Front Expert Advice Galileo's Second Coming Soon UPS First to Use ADS-B European Industry Group Galileo Validation 2008 Antenna Survey Tsumani Detection by GPS Classifieds Advertisers Index Seen + Heard

GPS World - February 2008

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