Auxiliary Material Submission for Paper 2011JA017025

Ionospheric Signatures of Tohoku-Oki Tsunami of March 11, 2011: Model Comparisons Near the Epicenter

David A. Galvan(1), Attila Komjathy(1), Michael P. Hickey(2), Philip Stephens(1), Jonathan Snively(2), Y. Tony Song (1), Mark Butala(1) and Anthony J. Mannucci(1)

1: Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, 4800 Oak Grove Dr., Pasadena, CA, USA.
2: Department of Physical Sciences, Embry Riddle Aeronautical University, Daytona Beach, FL, USA.

Journal of Geophysical Research, 2011JA017025 (FILL IN SUBMISSION ID AND DOI)

Introduction

These four animations are supportive of figures in the submitted paper itself, and are referenced as Animation 1, 2, 3 and 4 in the paper.  They are alternately available at the following ftp URLs, which are also listed in the paper's reference section:

Animation1:
ftp://sideshow.jpl.nasa.gov/pub/usrs/dgalvan/JGR_Tohoku_Animations/20110311_Japan_1200redux_dualpass_color_trimmed.mp4

Animation2:
ftp://sideshow.jpl.nasa.gov/pub/usrs/dgalvan/JGR_Tohoku_Animations/Japan20110311_SongOnly.mp4

Animation3:
ftp://sideshow.jpl.nasa.gov/pub/usrs/dgalvan/JGR_Tohoku_Animations/20110311_Japan_1200redux_dualpass_color_Song_No26.mp4

Animation4:
ftp://sideshow.jpl.nasa.gov/pub/usrs/dgalvan/JGR_Tohoku_Animations/20110311_PBO_AllSats_30plus_25cmSeaHeight.mp4

See captions for animations below:

Animation 1: Animation showing band-pass filtered VTEC at Ionospheric
Pierce Points (IPPs) in the vicinity of Japan before, during, and
after the earthquake and tsunami of March 11, 2011. Note
traveling ionospheric disturbances (TIDs), visible throughout the
animation, moving outward away from the earthquake epicenter (represented
by a black star). Earliest TIDs are likely associated with acoustic and Rayleigh waves
caused by the earthquake itself, while later, slower-moving TIDs are
likely associated with atmospheric internal gravity waves caused by the
tsunami. Colorbar shows magnitude of VTEC perturbation in the
ionosphere in TECU.

Animation 2: Animation showing Song model of ocean tsunami wavefronts from Tohoku event of March 11, 2011.  Colorbar shows amplitude of sea surface waves in meters.

Animation 3: Animation showing band-pass filtered VTEC at Ionospheric
Pierce Points (IPPs) in the vicinity of Japan before, during, and
after the earthquake and tsunami of March 11, 2011. Song model of ocean tsunami wavefronts is overplotted to show
correlation between variations in VTEC and tsunami wave location. Note
traveling ionospheric disturbances (TIDs), visible throughout
the animation, correlated with the tsunami position.  Earliest TIDs are
likely associated with acoustic waves caused by the earthquake itself,
while later, slower-moving TIDs are likely associated with atmospheric
internal gravity waves caused by the tsunami.  Right colorbar shows
magnitude of VTEC perturbation in the ionosphere in TECU, and left
colorbar shows amplitude of sea surface waves in meters.

Animation 4: Band-pass filtered VTEC from the Plate Boundary Observatory (PBO) network in North America, plotted at Ionospheric Pierce Points at the time of the arrival of the Tohoku tsunami at the west coast of the United States. Song model of ocean tsunami is plotted as well to show the timing of arrival relative to the traveling ionospheric disturbances (TIDs) over the North American Continent. TIDs matching the direction and speed of the ocean tsunami are seen propagating over 1500 km past the coast where the tsunami itself was stopped.  Right colorbar shows magnitude of VTEC perturbation in the ionosphere in TECU, and left colorbar shows amplitude of sea surface waves in meters.