IONO-DIET

The Project IONO-DIET aims to develop, for the first time, ionosphere-based methods that will detect earthquakes and tsunamis in near-real-time (NRT), and will determine the earthquake source parameters and/or tsunami wave-heights from the ionosphere in NRT. The latter will be done based on detection of co-seismic and co-tsunamic ionospheric disturbances by GNSS receivers. The ambition of IONO-DIET is to contribute in the improvement of the existing warning systems by rapidly providing the missing piece of information about the seismic source and the tsunami-genesis of an earthquake, or the estimates of the wave heights of tsunamis propagating in open sea.

The idea to use ionospheric measurements for tsunami warnings is not new. However, despite several promising seismo-ionospheric results presented recently, the system is not yet there. IONO-DIET aims to become the last step before the ionosphere-based EQ/tsunami risk assessment system becomes a reality.

Our approach is based on development of empirical relationships between earthquake & tsunami parameters and their ionospheric signatures. To fully achieve this main goal, it is necessary to address the following specific objectives: 1) to advance in the understanding of the solid Earth/ocean/atmosphere/ionosphere coupling and to respond the fundamental scientific questions; 2) to distinguish NH-driven disturbances from those of other origins. For this purpose, we’ll work on and resolve the biggest challenge in the modern ionospheric sciences – the identification and differentiation of the source of travelling ionospheric disturbances (TIDs); 3) to develop a few novel methodologies that satisfy the NRT requirements by being precise and rapid.