Air Current Circulation as a Possible Cause of Preseismic Anomalies in the Surface Electric Field

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Abstract

Ground-based measurements of the vertical atmospheric electric field of the Earth sometimes show bay-like anomalies that precede certain earthquakes. In some cases, these anomalies have even been accompanied by a change in the sign of the field under fair weather conditions. Possible causes of this phenomenon are typically attributed to anomalous changes in electrical conductivity in the surface air and increased radon emission from the soil. This paper proposes another mechanism of atmospheric electrical anomalies that involves the entrainment of charged aerosols and light and heavy ions by air flows. Such flows can be produced by small temperature anomalies observed before some seismic events. Theoretical analysis shows that anomalously strong electrical variations may occur even in the presence weak air flows provided that they persist for a long time and there is a specific structure of the velocity field with vertical air circulation and particle exchange between different atmospheric layers. For this type of flows, an analytical solution is derived and spatial distributions of atmospheric electric perturbations are obtained. The results of calculations and estimates confirm that the proposed mechanism can explain the observational data.

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About the authors

V. V. Surkov

Schmidt Institute of Physics of the Earth, Russian Academy of Sciences; Pushkov Institute of Terrestrial Magnetism, Ionosphere and Radio Wave Propagation, Russian Academy of Sciences

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Email: surkovvadim@yandex.ru
Russian Federation, Moscow; Troitsk, Moscow

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Supplementary files

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2. Fig. 1. Schematic representation of the model and current lines describing air circulation.

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3. Fig. 2. Calculations of atmospheric particle concentration distribution by height for the time moment in the case of small Curves 1-5 correspond to the values of horizontal coordinates 0, and respectively.

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4. Fig. 3. Calculations of the height distribution of the perturbation of the vertical projection of the atmospheric electric field created by positively charged atmospheric particles of grade i for the time moment in the case of small Curves 1-5 correspond to the horizontal coordinates: 0, and respectively.

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5. Fig. 4. Calculations of the horizontal distribution of the perturbation of the vertical projection perturbation of the atmospheric electric field created by positively charged atmospheric particles of grade i for the time moment in the case of small Curves 1-3 correspond to fixed values of heights and b, respectively.

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6. Fig. 5. Calculations of the concentration distribution of atmospheric particles of sort i over height for the case when the parameter is not small. Graph 1 is plotted for the time instant Graphs 2 and 2′ for Graphs 3 and 3′ for Solid lines 2, 3 and dashed lines 2′, 3′ correspond to the values and, respectively.

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7. Fig. 6. Calculations of the height distribution of the vertical projection of the atmospheric electric field generated by positively charged atmospheric particles of the i-th type for the moment of time and the case when the parameter is not small. Curves 1 and 2 correspond to the values and respectively. The dotted line corresponds to the unperturbed electric field created by these particles at the moment of time and the case when the parameter is not small.

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8. Fig. 7. The same as Fig. 6, but for the case when the electric field is created by two types of oppositely charged atmospheric particles.

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