Thermal radiation anomalies associated with major earthquakes

29 Recent developments of remote sensing methods for Earth satellite data analysis 30 contribute to our understanding of earthquake related thermal anomalies. It was realized 31 that the thermal heat fluxes over areas of earthquake preparation is a result of air 32 ionization by radon (and other gases) and consequent water vapor condensation on newly 33 formed ions. Latent heat (LH) is released as a result of this process and leads to the 34 formation of local thermal radiation anomalies (TRA) known as OLR (outgoing 35 Longwave radiation, Ouzounov et al, 2007). We compare the LH energy, obtained by 36 integrating surface latent heat flux (SLHF) over the area and time with released energies 37 associated with these events. Extended studies of the TRA using the data from the most 38 recent major earthquakes allowed establishing the main morphological features. It was 39 also established that the TRA are the part of more complex chain of the short-term pre40 earthquake generation, which is explained within the framework of a lithosphere41 atmosphere coupling processes. 42 43 List of Acronyms: 44 AVHHRAdvanced Very High Resolution Radiometer( NOAA) 45 ACPAtmospheric chemical potential 46 EMSCEuropean-Mediterranean Seismological Centre 47 EOS Earth Observation System (NASA) 48 AIRS –Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (NASA) 49 EQ-earthquake 50 GMSD –IGS GPS station in Japan 51 GOES Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (NOAA) 52 ISTFIntegrated satellite and terrestrial framework 53 LAICLithosphere-Atmosphere-Ionosphere Coupling 54 LH – Latent heat 55 LWR – Long wave radiation 56 LAIMC Lithosphere-Atmosphere-Ionosphere-Magnetosphere Coupling 57 POES Polar Operational Environmental Satellites (NOAA) 58 OLR –Outgoing Longwave Radiation 59 RSTRobust Satellite technique 60 STIRSatellite thermal infrared radiation 61 SW –short wave radiation 62 TIR-Thermal Infrared radiation 63 TOA – Top of the Atmosphere 64 USGS-US Geological Survey 65 66 67 68