Towards the Implementation of a GNSS-based Tsunami Early Warning System Using Ionospheric Measurements

Y-M. Yang and A. Komjathy, R.B. Langley, X. Meng, O. Verkhoglyadova and A.J. Mannucci

Peer Reviewed

Abstract:	Natural hazards and solid Earth events, such as earthquakes, tsunamis and volcanic eruptions are actual sources that may trigger acoustic and gravity waves resulting in traveling ionospheric disturbances (TIDs) in the upper atmosphere. Trans-ionospheric radio wave measurements sense the total electron content (TEC) 2 along the signal propagation path. In this research, we introduce a novel GPS-based detection and estimation technique for remote sensing of atmospheric waveinduced TIDs including space weather phenomena induced by major natural hazard events, using TEC time series collected from worldwide ground-based dualfrequency GNSS (including GPS) receiver networks. We demonstrate the ability of using ground- and spacebased dual-frequency GPS measurements to detect and monitor tsunami wave propagation from the 2011 Tohoku-Oki earthquake and tsunami. Major wave trains with different propagation speeds and wavelengths were identified through analysis of the GPS remote sensing observations. Dominant physical characteristics of atmospheric wave-induced TIDs are found to be associated with specific tsunami propagations and oceanic Rayleigh waves. In this research, we focus on the analysis of tsunami-induced TIDs observed from the U.S. west coast. We compared GPS-based observations, corresponding model simulations and tsunami wave propagation. Results are shown to lead to a better understanding of the tsunami-induced ionosphere responses. Based on current distribution of Plate Boundary Observatory GPS stations, the results indicate that tsunami-induced TIDs may be detected about 60 minutes prior to tsunamis arriving at the U.S. west coast. It is expected that this GNSS-based technology will become an integral part of future early-warning systems.
Published in:	Proceedings of the 28th International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GNSS+ 2015) September 14 - 18, 2015 Tampa Convention Center Tampa, Florida
Pages:	3480 - 3484
Cite this article:	Yang, Y-M., Komjathy, A., Langley, R.B., Meng, X., Verkhoglyadova, O., Mannucci, A.J., "Towards the Implementation of a GNSS-based Tsunami Early Warning System Using Ionospheric Measurements," Proceedings of the 28th International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GNSS+ 2015), Tampa, Florida, September 2015, pp. 3480-3484.
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