Monitoring Ionospheric TEC Responses Induced by Earthquakes (MIRIE)

• Applicants: Professor Dr.-Ing. Harald Schuh; Professor Yuri Shprits, Ph.D.
• Subject Area: Geodesy, Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing, Geoinformatics, Cartography
• Term: since 2026
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 579103676

Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) can be used for monitoring ionospheric responses induced by seismic activity, particularly earthquakes, earthquake-related tsunamis, and volcanic eruptions. A key parameter frequently used to monitor Coseismic Ionospheric Disturbances (CID) is the Total Electron Content (TEC), which can be derived from dual-frequency GNSS observations. However, simultaneous occurrence of ionospheric TEC anomalies caused by seismic activity and naturally occurring ionospheric disturbances complicates the analysis of specific events This project aims to determine whether statistically significant differences in ionospheric TEC anomalies can be identified, thereby distinguishing CID signatures from other influencing factors. A comprehensive assessment will be conducted on global earthquakes with magnitudes ranging from ~4 Mw to ~9 Mw that occurred between 1992 and 2025, utilizing ~5,000 globally distributed GNSS stations. The GNSS data will be obtained from four world data centers: the international GNSS service (IGS; 525 stations, globally distributed), the GAGE facility data center in the US (GAGE; 2,130 stations, with roughly half located in North America), the GFZ GNSS data center (GFZ-GNSS; ~900 stations in European countries and ~500 stations in South America), and the Japanese GNSS Earth observation network system (GEONET; ~1,300 stations in Japan). Auxiliary datasets, including GNSS metadata, solar and geomagnetic activity indices, and a global earthquake catalogue, will be used to validate CID signals. Advanced techniques for high-precision GNSS-TEC time series (e.g., data cleaning and discontinuity correction) will improve CID interpretation. Additionally, GNSS-TEC anomalies will be generated to simulate observational errors (e.g., outliers or systematic errors due to changes in satellite ephemeris parameters), enabling the distinction of ionospheric disturbances driven by natural processes from those caused by observational artifacts. The parameters of coseismic-acoustic waves (e.g., phase, amplitude, frequency, and disturbance duration) in the ionosphere will be quantified by combining spectral analysis (e.g., high-pass filtering) with function approximation methods (e.g., sine or Fourier functions). Furthermore, the project will provide GNSS-TEC datasets with 30-second temporal resolution from ~500 global IGS stations, along with a curated dataset of GNSS-TEC disturbances associated with globally significant earthquakes (Mw ≥ 7), mainly occurring in the Pacific Ring of Fire region. The outputs of this study including data sets will be made publicly available for verification and analysis by other groups and for the future development of AI-driven models. These outputs will contribute to the enhancement of global open-access data repositories. The project findings will provide a deeper understanding of the physical interactions between seismic activity and the ionosphere.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants