Comparative study of the possible lower ionospheric anomalies in very low frequency (VLF) signal during Honshu, 2011 and Nepal, 2015 earthquakes

Abstract

We present perturbations in very low frequency (VLF) signals received at Ionospheric & Earthquake Research Centre (IERC) (Lat. 22.50N, Long. 87.48E) during and prior to two earthquakes, one on 11 March 2011 at 11:16:24 LT (M ¼ 9) in Honshu, Japan and another on 12 May 2015 at 12:35:19 LT (M ¼ 7.3) in Kodari, Nepal. The VLF signal transmitted from JJI (22.2 kHz) in Japan (Lat. 32.05N, Long. 131.51E) showed strong shift in VLF-sunrise terminator times towards night-time few days prior to both the earthquakes. These two earthquakes took place near the transmitter JJI and receiver IERC respectively. We simulated the VLF sunrise terminator time shifts using the long wavelength propagation capability (LWPC) code. To effectively represent the D-region ionospheric variabilities, we assumed a mean dynamic perturbation over the path and presented them with a set of effective Wait’s parameters (beff, h0 eff ). We have successfully reproduced the temporal trend of the normalized VLF signal amplitude at VLF sunrise terminators for a few days around both the earthquakes. We used Wait’s exponential model for estimating the altitude profile of D-region electron density Ne(h) at VLF sunrise terminator times around both the earthquakes and quantified the changes of those Ne(h) profiles.