Orbiting Nano-satellites for Earthquake Prediction (ONSEP)
2Electrical Engineering, Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven, Netherlands
3Radio group, Netherlands Foundation for Research in Radio Astronomy (ASTRON), Dwingeloo, Netherlands
The ONSEP mission is a proposed nano-satellite constellation mission, which is intended to perform measurements in the VLF and HF-frequency bands in the Low Earth Orbit to understand the pre-seismic anomalies (seismic-electromagnetic mechanisms) occurring in the ionosphere, which will help predict earthquakes.
Over the last 25 years, ground-based and satellite-based observations have been carried out to understand precursory signatures that could help reliably predict earthquakes. The characteristics of the ionosphere have been highly unpredictable due to its dependence on various phenomena such as solar activity, thunderstorms, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and man-made noise. The seismic-electromagnetic process prior to an earthquake has proven to be a reliable pre-seismic phenomenon for short-term prediction of earthquakes. The plate tectonics close to the epicenter of an earthquake lead to the compression and expansion of the rocks, causing a piezoelectric effect. As a result of this triboelectric effect, and rising warm gases, the Earth’s surface potential around the epicenter changes, which creates anomalies in the Earth’s electric field and subsequently the ion density in the ionosphere. The associated anomalies have been observed over a wide frequency range from DC to VHF.
The observations made by the DEMETER mission (launched in 2004) have confirmed these anomalies. The results and observations made by the ICE (Instrument Champ Electrique) instrument onboard the DEMETER mission is used as a case-study to derive the mission requirements for the ONSEP mission. The primary mission objective of ONSEP is to perform active/passive observations in the VLF and HF bands to record the anomalies during pre-seismic activities, at the time of an earthquake and post-seismic activities to develop better correlate ionospheric anomalies to geo-hazards and manmade noise.
In summary, this paper provides a feasibility study of using a constellation of nano-satellites to perform active/passive ionospheric measurements, that could help better understand pre-seismic signatures.
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