Constraining the focal mechanism of the Lushan earthquake with observations of the Earth’s free oscillations

The amplitudes of the Earth's free oscillations have a close relationship to earthquake focal mechanisms. Focal mechanisms of large earthquakes can be well analyzed and constrained with observations of long period free oscillations. Although the 2013 Lushan earthquake was only moderately sized, observable spherical normal modes were excited and clearly observed by a superconductive gravimeter and a broadband seismometer. We compare observed free oscillations with synthetic normal modes corresponding to four different focal mechanisms for the Lushan earthquake. The results show that source parameters can be analyzed and constrained by spherical normal modes in a 2.3–5 mHz frequency band. The scalar seismic moment M0 has a major influence on the amplitudes of free oscillations; additionally, the strike, dip, rake and depth of the hypocenter have minor influences. We found that the synthetic modes corresponding to the focal mechanism determined by the Global Centroid Moment Tensor show agreement to the observed modes, suggesting that earthquake magnitudes predicted in this way can readily reflect the total energy released by the earthquake. The scalar seismic moment obtained by far-field body wave inversion is significantly underestimated. Focal mechanism solutions can be improved by joint inversion of far- and near-field data.     

Precipitation Observations with NSSL’s X-band Polarimetric Radar during the SNOW-V10 Campaign

In support of SNOW-V10, the National Oceanic Administration/National Severe Storms Laboratory (NOAA/NSSL) mobile dual-polarized X-band (NO-XP) radar was deployed to Birch Bay State Park in Birch Bay, Washington from 3 January 2010 to 17 March 2010. In addition to being made available in real time for Science and NOWcasting of the Olympic Weather for Vancouver 2010 (SNOW-V10) operations, NO-XP data are used here to demonstrate the capabilities of easily deployable, polarimetric X-band radar systems, especially for regions where mountainous terrain results in partial beam blockage. A rainfall estimator based on specific attenuation is shown to mitigate the effects of partial beam blockage and provide potential improvement in rainfall estimation. The ability of polarimetric X-band radar to accurately detect melting layer (ML) height is also shown. A 16 h comparison of radar reflectivity (Z), differential reflectivity (Z _DR), and correlation coefficient (ρ_hv) measurements from NO-XP with vertically pointing Micro Rain Radar observations indicates that the two instruments provide ML height evolution that exhibit consistent temporal trends. Since even slight changes in the ML height in regions of mountainous terrain might result in a change in precipitation type measured at the surface, this shows that horizontally extensive information on ML height fluctuations, such as provided by the NO-XP, is useful in determining short term changes in expected precipitation type. Finally, range-height indicator (RHI) scans of NO-XP Z, Z _DR, and ρ_hv fields from SNOW-V10 are used to demonstrate the ability of polarimetric radar to diagnose microphysical processes (both above and below the ML) that otherwise remain unseen by conventional radar. Near-surface enhancements in Z _DR are attributed to either differential sedimentation or the preferential evaporation of smaller drops. Immediately above the ML, regions of high Z, low Z _DR, and high ρ_hv are believed to be associated with convective turrets containing heavily aggregated or rimed snow that supply water/ice mass that later result in enhanced regions of precipitation near the surface. Higher up, horizontally extensive regions of enhanced Z _DR are attributed to rapid dendritic growth and the onset of snow aggregation, a feature that has been widely observed with both S band and C band radars.     

Geomagnetic Variations Observed on the Earth’s Surface and Associated with Strong Earthquakes

Izvestiya, Physics of the Solid Earth - Abstract—The intensification of geomagnetic variations due to a number of strong remote earthquakes is studied using a chain of ground-based...     

Seismic Studies of the Earth’s Core

Izvestiya, Physics of the Solid Earth - Abstract—The paper presents the review of the conceptually most important results of seismological studies of the Earth’s core and their...     

Magnetorotational instability in the Earth’s core

The anisotropy of the convection in the Earth’s core can act as a cause of its nonsolid rotation. In the case of differential rotation, the magneto-rotational instability (the Velikhov instability) can arise in the liquid core. It is shown that the development of the magneto-rotational instability of the hydromagnetic flows in the liquid core of the Earth can generate variations in the geomagnetic field observed on the Earth’s surface.     

Models of the Earth’s plasmapause position

正The plasmasphere is a region of relatively dense(~10–10000 cm~(–3))plasma,surrounding the Earth and extending to distances of about five Earth radii(R_E).It is filled with large amount of cold(~1 e V)plasma originated from the Earth’s ionosphere and co-rotating with the Earth due to the large scale co-rotation electric field.The outermost     

On the relation of variations in the travel times of seismic waves with the changes in the speed of the Earth’s rotation

The results of long-term sounding of the lithosphere by seismic waves from the deep-focus Hindu Kush earthquakes are presented. The travel time series of the first longitudinal wave on a fixed base are constructed for six seismic observation stations (SS) located on the Russian Platform (the Obninsk SS), on the Siberian Platform (the Eltsovka SS), on the Cis-Ural Trough (the Arti SS), in the Central-Ural Megazone (the Sverdlovsk SS), in the Transbaikalia (the Bodaibo SS), and in the Northern Tien Shan (the Przhevalsk SS). The time series duration in years for these stations ranged from 1964–1970 to 2007. The travel time series of seismic waves for the stations indicated are characterized by multi-slope negative linear trends caused by changes in the stress-strain state of rocks. From the comparison of the trend slopes at different stations it follows that the changes in the stress conditions within the lithosphere are relatively weak in the aseismic regions of the Russian and Siberian Platforms and in the Ural Megazone, whereas in the seismically active regions of Tien Shan, Transbaikalia and the Cis-Ural Trough they are more pronounced. The correlation has been observed between the time series trends of the average annual travel times of seismic waves and the time series of the Earth’s rotation speed. The strongest correlation between the series can be seen for the stations, located on the platforms with weak manifestations of both seismicity and active geodynamic processes. Within the long-term periods of deceleration and acceleration of the Earth’s rotation, travel times of seismic waves are decreased and increased, respectively.     

Spatial Scales of Super Thin Current Sheets with MMS Observations in the Earth’s Magnetotail

Geomagnetism and Aeronomy - We studied the magnetic configuration and determined the spatial scales of the super thin current sheets observed by MMS in the Earth’s magnetotail during the...     

Detection and interpretation of the Earth’s free oscillations excited by the great Sumatra-Andaman earthquake with GGP station data

The mode serials of the Earth’s free oscillation provide some important information on the Earth’s deep structure and superconducting gravimeters (SG) can investigate the phenomena of the Earth’s free oscillations with high accuracy. The great Sumatra-Andaman earthquake fully excited the Earth’s free oscillations and these signals were perfectly recorded by five superconducting gravimeters in the globe. After the pre-treatment and spectral analysis on the SG observation data, we obtained the experimented mo...     

Heat Transport Processes in the Earth’s Crust

The heat of the Earth derives from internal and external sources. A heat balance shows that most of the heat provided by external sources is re-emitted by long-wavelength heat radiation and that the dominant internal sources are original heat and heat generated by decay of unstable radioactive isotopes. Understanding of the thermal regime of the Earth requires appreciation of properties and mechanisms for heat generation, storage, and transport. Both experimental and indirect methods are available for inferring the corresponding rock properties. Heat conduction is the dominant transport process in the Earth’s crust, except for settings where appreciable fluid flow provides a mechanism for heat advection. For most crustal and mantle rocks, heat radiation becomes significant only at temperatures above 1200°C.

Streamer belt in the solar corona and the Earth’s orbit

It has been indicated that the cross section of the streamer belt in the solar corona and its extension in the heliosphere—heliospheric plasma sheet (HPS)—have the form of two radially oriented closely located (at a distance of d ≈ 2.0–2.5° in the heliocentric coordinate system) rays with increased and generally different densities. The angular dimensions of the rays are ≈d. The neutral line of the magnetic field in the corona and the related sector boundary in the Earth’s orbit are located between the peaks of densities of these two rays. In the events, during which the true sector boundary coincides with the heliospheric current sheet, the transverse structure of the streamer belt in the heliosphere (or the HPS structure) is quasistationary; i.e., this structure slightly changes when the solar wind moves from the Sun to the Earth in, at least, 50% of cases. A hypothesis that a slow solar wind, flowing in the rays with increased density of the streamer belt, is probably generated on the Sun’s surface rather than at the top of the helmet, as was assumed in [Wang et al., 2000], is put forward.     

Determining the thickness of the low-latitude boundary layer in the Earth’s magnetosphere

We describe a method for determining the thickness of the low-latitude boundary layer (LLBL) of the Earth’s magnetosphere at the dayside near the equatorial plane based on the data gathered by a single satellite that traverses the layer and measures the plasma velocity. The method may be applied when the position of the magnetopause and the magnetosheath parameters fluctuate. The necessity of taking the presence of outer and inner LLBL regions into account is analyzed. The developed method is tested using the analysis results of two almost simultaneous close traverses of the magnetopause completed by the THEMIS mission satellites that provided relatively precise data on the LLBL thickness. It is shown that the developed method makes it possible to determine the LLBL thickness with an accuracy of ～10%.     

Motion of the Earth’s magnetic poles in the last decade

Based on vector magnetic data from the CHAMP German satellite, average daily spherical harmonic models of the main geomagnetic field to n = m = 10 have been constructed for the period from May 2001 to the end of 2009 at an interval of 4 days. The obtained 16 models, which were averaged over half a year, have been used to calculate the coordinates of the north and south magnetic poles (the points where magnetic field lines are vertical). The changes in these coordinates during these eight and a half years have been traced. Both poles continue moving northward and westward. The north magnetic pole has traveled 400 km during this period. The velocity of its motion has increased up to the year 2003, reaching 62.5 km yr⁻¹, and then started decreasing and reached 45 km yr⁻¹ by the end of 2009. In addition, the direction of motion changed from north-northwestward to northwestward; i.e., the pole started turning slightly towards Canada. The south magnetic pole moved slower by an order of magnitude and has traveled 42 km during this period. The coordinates of the geomagnetic (dipole) poles and the eccentric dipole parameters have also been calculated. The dynamics of these poles has been traced.     

The boundary value problem of Poisson’s equation with Stokes’ boundary condition

The following Poisson’s equation with the Stokes’ boundary condition is dealt with $$\left\{ \begin{gathered} \nabla ^2 T = - 4\pi Gp outside S, \hfill \\ \left. {\frac{{\partial T}}{{\partial h}} = \frac{1}{\gamma }\frac{{\partial y}}{{\partial h}}T} \right|_s = - \Delta g, \hfill \\ T = O\left( {r^{ - 3} } \right) at infinity, \hfill \\ \end{gathered} \right.$$ whereS is reference ellipsord. Under spherical approximation transformation, the ellipsoidal correction terms about the boundary condition, the equation and the density in the above BVP are respectively given. Therefore, the disturbing potentialT can he obtained if the magnitudes aboveO(ε⁴) are neglected.     

Features of the Generation of Ultralow-Frequency Electromagnetic Waves in the Earth’s Magnetosphere with Consideration of the Final Plasma Pressure of Hot Particles

Geomagnetism and Aeronomy - An analysis of the influence of the plasma pressure of hot anisotropic protons of the Earth’s radiation belt β on the development of cyclotron instability of...     

Model of muon generation in the Earth’s atmosphere

The muon fluxes on the Earth’s surface and at depths of 7, 20, and 40 m of water equivalent are calculated based on a simple model of pion generation by primary particles with different energies. This generation model is based on the known concepts of multiple pion production. The model parameters are compared with the data obtained using accelerating machines.     

High Resolution Constituents of the Earth’s Gravitational Field

During the General Assembly of the European Geosciences Union in April 2008, the new Earth Gravitational Model 2008 (EGM08) was released with fully-normalized coefficients in the spherical harmonic expansion of the Earth’s gravitational potential complete to degree and order 2159 (for selected degrees up to 2190). EGM08 was derived through combination of a satellite-based geopotential model and 5 arcmin mean ground gravity data. Spherical harmonic coefficients of the global height function, that describes the surface of the solid Earth with the same angular resolution as EGM08, became available at the same time. This global topographical model can be used for estimation of selected constituents of EGM08, namely the gravitational potentials of the Earth’s atmosphere, ocean water (fluid masses below the geoid) and topographical masses (solid masses above the geoid), which can be evaluated numerically through spherical harmonic expansions. The spectral properties of the respective potential coefficients are studied in terms of power spectra and their relation to the EGM08 potential coefficients is analyzed by using correlation coefficients. The power spectra of the topographical and sea water potentials exceed the power of the EGM08 potential over substantial parts of the considered spectrum indicating large effects of global isostasy. The correlation analysis reveals significant correlations of all three potentials with the EGM08 potential. The potential constituents (namely their functionals such as directional derivatives) can be used for a step known in geodesy and geophysics as the gravity field reduction or stripping. Removing from EGM08 known constituents will help to analyze the internal structure of the Earth (geophysics) as well as to derive the Earth’s gravitational field harmonic outside the geoid (geodesy).     

Inertial effects in the Earth’s crust and magnetosphere

A review of studies devoted to the problem of exciting magnetic signals in the crust associated with the formation of the major rupture in an earthquake source and with the propagation of seismic waves was given in [Sgrigna et al., 2004]. However, this review contains incorrect citations from original papers and several erroneous statements concerning inertial and inductive mechanisms of conversion of the energy of rock motion into magnetic field energy. These mistakes are analyzed in the present paper. The formal and physical similarity between seismomagnetic waves in the crust and Alfvén waves in the magnetosphere is used in the analysis. A comparative analysis of the inertial and inductive mechanisms of seismomagnetic field generation is performed. The Cherenkov criterion of Alfvén wave generation due to the ionospheric effect of acoustic waves from earthquakes and explosions is derived. Attention is also given to nonlinear phenomena (nonlinearity of a mechanomagnetic conversion in the crust and anharmonicity and self-focusing of Alfvén waves in the magnetosphere).     

Deformation processes in the lithosphere related to the nonuniformity of the Earth’s rotation

The series of observations conducted at the Baksan and Protvino deformation stations in the Northern Caucasus and the Central Russian Plain, respectively, and the length-of-day (LOD) data describing the variable rate of the Earth’s rotation are used to study the relation between the deformation processes in the lithosphere and the global geodynamics of the Earth over short time intervals. The methods applied are based on high-resolution spectral analysis, analysis of the coherence of the studied processes, and correlation analysis. A significant (95%) correlation is revealed between the local deformation fields at two remote observation stations, which proves the existence of a global component in the Earth’s deformation field that manifests itself at characteristic time intervals of up to 3–4 weeks. At the same level of significance, the correlation between the local deformation fields and variations in the rate of the Earth’s rotation has also been identified. It is shown that the found correlations in the tidal low-frequency range are caused by the direct impact of the long-period tidal loading (M _f and M _tm waves) on the lithosphere and the length-of-the-day (LOD). The global mechanisms giving rise to the correlation of these processes in the nontidal range require further study.