Robust satellite techniques for seismically active areas monitoring: a sensitivity analysis on September 7, 1999 Athens's earthquake

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Abstract.A self adaptive approach (RST, Robust Satellite Technique) has been proposed as a suitable tool for satellite TIR surveys in seismically active regions devoted to detect and monitor thermal anomalies possibly related to earthquake occurrence. In this work, RST approach has been applied to 15 years of AVHRR (Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer) thermal infrared observations in order to study the 6 April 2009 Abruzzo earthquake. Preliminary results show clear differences in TIR anomalies occurrence during the periods used for validation (15 March-15 April 2009) and the one (15 March-15 April 2008) without earthquakes with M L ≥4.5, used for confutation purposes. Quite clear TIR anomalies appears also to mark main tectonic lineaments during the preparatory phases of others, low magnitude(3.9

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…On this basis, anomalous TIR patterns are identified as a deviation from those "normal" conditions, using a specific index, RETIRA (Robust Estimator of TIR Anomalies, Filizzola et al, 2004;Tramutoli, 2005), computed on the image at hand as in Eq. (1):…”

Section: A Robust Estimator Of Thermal Anomaliesmentioning

confidence: 99%

A study on the Abruzzo 6 April 2009 earthquake by applying the RST approach to 15 years of AVHRR TIR observations

Lisi

Filizzola

Genzano

et al. 2010

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“…The RST technique is based on a preliminary multi-temporal analysis on several years (at least five, better more) of homogeneous historical data-set of satellite TIR records, which is devoted to characterize the TIR signal (in terms of its expected value and variation range) for each pixel of the satellite image to be processed. On this basis, anomalous TIR patterns are identified by using a specific index, RETIRA (Robust Estimator of TIR Anomalies, Filizzola et al, 2004;, to be computed on the image at hand as:…”

Section: A Robust Estimator Of Thermal Anomaliesmentioning

confidence: 99%

RST analysis of MSG-SEVIRI TIR radiances at the time of the Abruzzo 6 April 2009 earthquake

Genzano

Aliano

Corrado

et al. 2009

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Abstract. Space-time fluctuations of Earth's emitted Thermal Infrared (TIR) radiation have been observed from satellite months to weeks before earthquakes occurrence.The general RST approach has been proposed in order to discriminate normal (i.e. related to the change of natural factor and/or observation conditions) TIR signal fluctuations from anomalous signal transient possibly associated to earthquake occurrence. In this work RST approach is applied to the Abruzzo 6 April 2009 event (M L =5.8) by using for the first time MSG-SEVIRI (Meteosat Second Generation -Spinning Enhanced Visible and Infrared Imager) thermal infrared observations. A validation/confutation analysis has been performed in order to verify the presence/absence of anomalous space-time TIR transients in the presence/absence of significant seismic activity. MarchApril 2009 has been analyzed for validation purposes. Relatively unperturbed periods (no earthquakes with M L ≥5) have been taken for confutation. A specific TIR anomalies spacetime persistence analysis as well as a cloud coverage distribution test have been introduced in order to eliminate artifacts and outliers both in the validation and confutation phases. Preliminary results show clear differences in TIR anomalies occurrence during the periods used for validation and confutation purposes. Quite clear TIR anomalies appear also to mark main tectonic lines related to the preparatory phases of others, low magnitude (M L ∼4) earthquakes, occurred in the area.

“…It has been implemented, until now, by using satellite data acquired both from polar (AVHRR-NOAA 2 ) and from geostationary (MVIRI 3 -Meteosat) sensors and different seismically active areas have been studied following this approach: Southern Italy (Irpinia-Basilicata's earthquake, 23 November 1980, M s =6.9, M b =6.0, in Tramutoli et al, 2001;Di Bello et al, 2004), Greece (Athens's earthquake, 7 September 1999, M s =5.9, M b =5.8, in Filizzola et al, 2004) and Turkey (Izmit's earthquake, 17 August 1999, M s =7.8, M b =6.8, Tramutoli et al, 2004 4 ). In all cases, attention was put on the possible correlation between observed TIR anomalies and earthquakes with a magnitude greater than 5.5.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Seismically active area monitoring by robust TIR satellite techniques: a sensitivity analysis on low magnitude earthquakes in Greece and Turkey

Corrado

Caputo

Filizzola

et al. 2005

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Part of Special Issue "Precursory phenomena, seismic hazard evaluation and seismo-tectonic electromagnetic effects" Abstract. Space-time TIR anomalies, observed from months to weeks before earthquake occurrence, have been suggested by several authors as pre-seismic signals. Up to now, such a claimed connection of TIR emission with seismic activity has been considered with some caution by scientific community mainly for the insufficiency of the validation data-sets and the scarce importance attached by those authors to other causes (e.g. meteorological) that, rather than seismic activity, could be responsible for the observed TIR signal fluctuations. A robust satellite data analysis technique (RAT) has been recently proposed which, thanks to a well-founded definition of TIR anomaly, seems to be able to identify anomalous spacetime TIR signal transients even in very variable observational (satellite view angle, land topography and coverage, etc.) and natural (e.g. meteorological) conditions.Its possible application to satellite TIR surveys in seismically active regions has been already tested in the case of several earthquakes (Irpinia: 23 November 1980, Athens: 7 September 1999, Izmit: 17 August 1999) of magnitude higher than 5.5 by using a validation/confutation approach, devoted to verify the presence/absence of anomalous spacetime TIR transients in the presence/absence of seismic activity. In these cases, a magnitude threshold (generally M<5) was arbitrarily chosen in order to identify seismically unperturbed periods for confutation purposes.In this work, 9 medium-low magnitude (4