Thermal method of remote sensing for prediction and monitoring Earthquake

Abstract

Analyzing past earthquakes and their characteristics, perhaps a better understanding about the earthquake phenomena can be made. Pressure built-up due to tectonic activities and also associated subsurface degassing might create changes in thermal regime and if by any technique this change is detected, it can provide very important clues about future earthquake activities. Passive thermal satellite remote sensing which can sense the earth’s surface emissivity at regular interval introduces a new way of analyzing this phenomenon. A method using MSG-SEVIRI (METEOSAT Second Generation- Spinning in Visible and InfraRed Imager) thermal infrared time series datasets is developed and applied in this research, AEPA ( Active Earthquake Prediction Algorithm) method can depict some anomalous increases in surface temperature that occur before an earthquake. One past earthquakes in Oran (Algeria) from June, 06 2008 was analyzed for studying the thermal changes before and after the earthquakes. The study was successful in detecting pre-earthquake thermal anomalies prior to all these earthquakes. Significant thermal anomalies with a rise in temperature of about 4-6°K in the vicinity of the epicenters have been observed. The anomalies disappeared along with the events.