Electromagnetic ULF Fields from an Underground Seismic Source on the Earth’s Surface and in the Ionosphere

Abstract

A theoretical formalism has been developed to calculate the electromagnetic fields generated in the atmosphere–ionosphere system by a finitelength underground horizontal current source. A numerical model with a realistic profile of the ionosphere in a vertical geomagnetic field has been designed based on this theory. It is shown that the apparent impedance of the electromagnetic field created by an underground source on the Earth’s surface is one order of magnitude higher than the Earth’s impedance, which can be used to discriminate perturbations from seismogenic sources. The presented results of numerical modeling allow us to relate perturbations created by a large-scale underground source in the Earth surface magnetic field and in the electric field in the ionosphere. Based on these model estimates it is concluded that many of the ULF electric field perturbations detected in satellite data before earthquakes cannot be attributed to direct emission from seismogenic sources.