Analysis of coseismic ionospheric disturbance of Litang earthquake on September 22, 2016 based on GNSS ionospheric tomography

Fei YE, DunYong ZHENG, PengFei YUAN, ChunHua CHEN, KunHuo DU

Prog Geophy ›› 2026, Vol. 41 ›› Issue (3) : 975-987.

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Prog Geophy ›› 2026, Vol. 41 ›› Issue (3) : 975-987. DOI: 10.6038/pg2026JJ0230

Analysis of coseismic ionospheric disturbance of Litang earthquake on September 22, 2016 based on GNSS ionospheric tomography

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Abstract

The occurrence of earthquakes is often accompanied by abnormal ionospheric disturbances. To explore the correlation between earthquakes and ionospheric disturbances, this paper takes the successive earthquakes of magnitude 4.9 and 5.1 in Litang County, Sichuan Province, on September 22, 2016 as an example, based on the data of the tectonic environment monitoring network in Chinese, and combined with the ionospheric tomography technology to carry out analysis. Research has found that: (1) By analyzing the observation data of the Earth's electric field and the Global Ionospheric Map (GIM) data, significant limitations exist in analyzing moderate intensity earthquake ionospheric disturbances: GIM data is significantly affected by geomagnetic activity interference and cannot effectively identify earthquake related anomalies; (2) The use of ionospheric tomography technology revealed a sustained positive anomaly in the southern ionosphere of the epicenter before the earthquake. During the earthquake, a significant high-energy region was formed inside the ionosphere, accompanied by a dynamic process of many electrons migrating to higher altitudes. Research has shown that compared to traditional observation methods, ionospheric tomography technology can more intuitively analyze the spatiotemporal evolution characteristics of ionospheric structures during earthquake occurrence, providing important technical support for the study of earthquake ionospheric disturbance mechanisms.

Key words

Ionosphere / Earthquake / Tectonic environmental monitoring network / Computerized ionospheric tomography

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Fei YE , DunYong ZHENG , PengFei YUAN , et al . Analysis of coseismic ionospheric disturbance of Litang earthquake on September 22, 2016 based on GNSS ionospheric tomography[J]. Progress in Geophysics. 2026, 41(3): 975-987 https://doi.org/10.6038/pg2026JJ0230

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感谢中国地震台网中心、国家地震科学数据中心(http://data.earthquake.cn)提供GNSS观测数据,感谢国家重大科技基础设施子午工程(https://www.meridianproject.ac.cn/gcjj/)提供地电场数据,感谢审稿专家提供的修改意见.

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