Natural Disasters Inference from GPS Observations: Case of Earthquakes and Tsunamis

Mohamed Abdel-salam

Abstract:	The paper deals with the possibility of earthquakes prediction through observing the ionospheric delay estimated from dual frequency GPS observations. A case study of the Sumatra’s earthquake that has struck the coast of the Indian Ocean on 26 December, 2004 is presented. For the purpose of this study, 10 consecutive days of GPS data obtained from 8 IGS stations close to the center of the earthquake center were used. These ten days of data are corresponding to the dates from December 16 to 26, 2004. Two approaches are used to estimate the absolute ionospheric delay of these GPS stations. The first approach uses code observations whereas the second approach uses a novel carrier phase approach. The analysis of the ionospheric delay of these ten days shows a remarkable ionosphere disturbance few hours before the earthquakes. This disturbance of ionsopheric delay was common for the IGS stations that are close to the earthquake region.
Published in:	Proceedings of the 18th International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GNSS 2005) September 13 - 16, 2005 Long Beach Convention Center Long Beach, CA
Pages:	2263 - 2267
Cite this article:	Abdel-salam, Mohamed, "Natural Disasters Inference from GPS Observations: Case of Earthquakes and Tsunamis," Proceedings of the 18th International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GNSS 2005), Long Beach, CA, September 2005, pp. 2263-2267.
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