Land Surface Temperature Anomalies Detection for the Strong Earthquakes in 2018

Abstract

Earthquake every year leads to human and material losses and unpredictability of it by now makes this natural disaster worsen. The objective of the current study was to determine the anomalies in land surface temperature (LST) in areas affected by earthquakes. In this research, three earthquakes (M >6) were studied. Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer Aqua and Terra day and night LST data used from 2003 to 2018. The interquartile range (IQR) and mean ± 2σ methods utilized to select anomalies. As a result, based on the IQR method, no prior and after anomaly detected in selected cases and data. Based on mean ± 2σ, usually positive anomaly occurred during daytime. However, negative (or positive) anomaly occurred during the nighttime before the Mexico and Bolivia earthquakes. During 10 days after the earthquake, sometimes a negative anomaly detected.

Potential Earthquake Proxies from Remote Sensing Data

“…Between 1998 and 2018, earthquakes caused 846 thousand deaths and approximately US$661 billion in economic losses [2]. While earthquakes are unavoidable, efforts have been made to mitigate and restrict their impact [3].…”