The 6 February 2023 Türkiye Earthquake Sequence as Detected in the Ionosphere

• Published in: Journal of geophysical research. Space physics 2023-09, Vol.128 (9), p.n/a
• Main Authors: Maletckii, B., Astafyeva, E., Sanchez, S. A., Kherani, E. A., Paula, E. R.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Aftershocks; co‐seismic ionospheric disturbances; Earth Sciences; Earthquakes; Global navigation satellite system; GNSS; Ionosphere; Ionospheric disturbances; Ionospheric propagation; Navigation satellites; Navigation systems; near‐real time; Physics; Sciences of the Universe; Seismic activity; Space Physics; the 2023 Türkiye earthquake; Total Electron Content
• ISSN: 2169-9380; 2169-9402
• DOI: 10.1029/2023JA031663

On 6 February 2023, a series of large earthquakes struck Turkey and Northern Syria. The main earthquake of Mw 7.8 occurred at 01:17:34 UTC and was followed by the three notable (Mw > 5.5) aftershocks within the next 18 min. Then, ∼9 hr later, the biggest aftershock with magnitude Mw 7.5 and a Mw 6.0 earthquake occurred to the north‐east from the first main earthquake. In this work, we use data of ground‐based Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) receivers in Turkey, Israel and Cyprus to analyze the ionospheric response to this series of earthquakes. We separate these events in two groups: the first sequence of earthquakes (at 01–02 UTC) and the second sequence (at 10–11 UTC). For the first sequence, we observe a clear N‐shaped total electron content (TEC) response after the Mw 7.8 mainshock earthquake and Mw 6.7 aftershock, and a smaller TEC disturbance that is, most likely, caused by the Mw 5.6 earthquake. The latter is now the smallest earthquake detected by using ionospheric GNSS data. The co‐seismic ionospheric disturbances (CSID) propagated from the epicentral area in the south‐west direction with velocities of about 750–830 m/s. For the second sequence, we observed the response to the Mw 7.5 aftershock earthquake and the Mw 6.0 aftershock. The CSID propagated both to the south‐west and the north‐west to the epicentral area, with velocities of about 950–1,100 m/s. Key Points By using Global Navigation Satellite Systems data, we analyze ionospheric total electron content (TEC) response to the Turkey earthquake sequences of 6 February 2023 We detect strong ionospheric response to two Mw7.5+ earthquakes and weaker signatures after three smaller aftershocks with Mw