Infrared emissions above the epicenter increased dramatically in the days before the devastating earthquake in Japan, say scientists.

Geologists have long puzzled over anecdotal reports of strange atmospheric phenomena in the days before big earthquakes. But good data to back up these stories has been hard to come by.

In recent years, however, various teams have set up atmospheric monitoring stations in earthquake zones and a number of satellites are capable of sending back data about the state of the upper atmosphere and the ionosphere during an earthquake.

Last year, we looked at some fascinating data from the DEMETER spacecraft showing a significant increase in ultra-low frequency radio signals before the magnitude 7 Haiti earthquake in January 2010

Today, Dimitar Ouzounov at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Centre in Maryland and a few buddies present the data from the Great Tohoku earthquake which devastated Japan on 11 March. Their results, although preliminary, are eye-opening.

They say that before the M9 earthquake, the total electron content of the ionosphere increased dramatically over the epicentre, reaching a maximum three days before the quake struck.

At the same time, satellite observations showed a big increase in infrared emissions from above the epicentre, which peaked in the hours before the quake. In other words, the atmosphere was heating up.

These kinds of observations are consistent with an idea called the Lithosphere-Atmosphere-Ionosphere Coupling mechanism. The thinking is that in the days before an earthquake, the great stresses in a fault as it is about to give cause the releases large amounts of radon.

The radioactivity from this gas ionises the air on a large scale and this has a number of knock on effects. Since water molecules are attracted to ions in the air, ionisation triggers the large scale condensation of water.

But the process of condensation also releases heat and it is this that causes infrared emissions. "Our first results show that on March 8th a rapid increase of emitted infrared radiation was observed from the satellite data," say Ouzounov and co.

These emissions go on to effect the ionosphere and its total electron content.

It certainly makes sense that the lithosphere, atmosphere and ionosphere are coupled in a way that can be measured when one of them is perturbed. The question is to what extent the new evidence backs up this idea.

The Japan earthquake is the largest to have struck the island in modern times and will certainly turn out to be among the best studied. If good evidence of this relationship doesn't emerge from this data, other opportunities will be few and far between.

Ref: arxiv.org/abs/1105.2841: Atmosphere-Ionosphere Response to the M9 Tohoku Earthquake Revealed by Joined Satellite and Ground Observations. Preliminary Results.

Very interesting. Thank you for sharing this. :)

thanks, i thought it was to... now they are going to be watching for this from now on, maybe they can learn something about this, and make an early warning system.

Maybe it's HAARP heating up the atmosphere.....



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYtLj_PXMTY


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRqcxjdRzGw

could be... have you seen that video of the Japanese guy counting down before the earthquake hit? they said since it happen away from land, they could precisely predict when the earthquake "waves" would get there... and the video shows him being right on target too...

That would be awesome if we could do that. I am nervous about our nuclear reactors in California and as you know they have sometimes some nasty earthquakes there.

they already have them in place, but they are only good after a quake.. they are not predicting anything, just letting you know how much time you have till the energy gets to a city or town... maybe 5 minutes at best...

Well at least it is 5 minutes...

that is something. lol

Not much but something!

enough to get outside, i guess...

When an earthquake is about to occur there is one thing all of them have in common, pressure in some direction. An Earthquake's intensity is controlled by friction, pressure, mass/ area of movement, distance of travel, direction of travel. In some cases the stone slides very easily along a fracture line of a fault. There can be movement but it only gives off very little vibration which is the earthquake itself. In cases where geology and fracture lines do not transition smoothly or a lot of area is forced to drag along another and pressure is more intense you either get a huge sudden release of energy and movement or you get a series of rather beefy jolts with varying degrees of movement. in either case, one or ten earthquakes, they are all dangerous to some extent. japan was a record breaker and best documented indeed.

But the thing that amazed me is that where there is pressure there is heat and by all rights even minute changes in temperature in stone can contribute to odd weather but likewise the crystalline matrix in stone can also generate a magnetic and electric field. Usually this field would be very weak but it could be a way of telling when the rock is becoming stressed and possibly use the stress points to determine where the earth will give but we are barely able to map enough of the faults to have any idea which way they would move with corresponding pressures and directions of force.

Maybe we are finally making detections means that are sensitive enough to pick up these minute changes. Oddly even inducing a weak ionic field can make material shed out of water like snow! So even a peizo electric induced field could cause localized weather to go wacky. And it would have to be induced by some phenomenon.

That is science!

wow very nice!

My mum says the world will end in twenty years, due to all the nuclear waste in the air and the sea. Is this true?

I doubt it. What I see really happening is in 50 years our population will swell so much we will strip the land for food and begin to starve to death! And at the rate China pollutes as well as the "Developing third world" we might just see a world of Soilent Green!

That's a relief. Thankyou! :)

My mum does say some unessasery things sometimes. I apologise on her behalf.

As for the population, I think most people think food is magic. It has to be grown and produced by farmers. There's only so much to go around.

I am a farmer, so... yeah... we will see what happens... Hmmm :)

This is fine and dandy. But what about other parts of earth? Are there or are there not areas with no tectonic or fault-line activities, where there is still a large release or influx of radon, which also gives rise to infrared emissions and other measurable effects of large amounts of radons?

I mean, this is good that we measured the presence of radon in one instance of a quake, but is there radon in other areas where there are cakes, and are there radon-rich areas where there are no quakers?

I mean, this is what is missing from the article, which would make it interesting.

I am not trying to be a party-pooper, but when one considers scientific news, one must receive the findings with the mind frame of a scientist, not with that of an enthusiast. Critical thinking is needed when interpreting such news, and leaving out very-very important elements can make the news grossly misleading.

I think that is exactly what is happening with reporting the climate change and blaming it on man. The reporting and the reception are done in the way of enthusiasts, not in the way of scientists.

And we could set our watches by the weather.

Interesting note: In Hungarian, the word for "weather" and for "time" is one and the same word, written as "ido".

Itt az ido, most vagy soha! - the time is here, (let's act) now or never!

Anyu, ma milyen ido lesz? -- Mommy, what's the weather going to be like today?