scholarly journals Possible earthquake precursors revealed by LF radio signals

2001 ◽  
Vol 1 (1/2) ◽  
pp. 99-104 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. F. Biagi ◽  
R. Piccolo ◽  
A. Ermini ◽  
S. Martellucci ◽  
C. Bellecci ◽  
...  

Abstract. Among radio signals, low frequency (LF) radio signals lie in the band between 30–300 kHz. Monitoring equipment with the ability to measure the electric strength of such signals at field sites, were designed and assembled in Italy. From 1993 onwards, the electric field strength of the MCO (216 kHz, France) broadcasting station has been collecting measurements at two sites in central Italy that were chosen according to very low noise levels. At the end of 1996, radio signals from the CLT (189 kHz, Italy) and CZE (270 kHz, Czech Republic) broadcasting stations were included in the measurements. Meteorological data from central Italy were also collected over the same time period in order to study the influence of weather conditions on the experimental measurements. During the monitoring period, we observed some evident attenuation of the electric field strength in some of the radio signals at some of the receivers. The duration of the attenuation observed was several days, so it could possibly be related to particular meteorological conditions. On the other hand, this phenomenon might represent precursors of moderate (3.0 < M < 3.5) earthquakes that occurred near the receivers (within 50 km) along the transmitter-receiver path. In this case, it is possible that the pre-seismic processes could have produced irregularities in the troposphere, such as ducts, reflecting layers and scattering zones, so that some local troposphere defocusing of the radio signals might have occurred. These observations were related only to moderate earthquakes and in these cases, suitable meteorological conditions were probably needed to observe the effect. Between February – March 1998, we observed at one measuring site, a significant increase in the CZE electric field strength. Unfortunately, we could not use the data of the other receiver in this case, due to frequent interruptions in the data set. The increase might have been a precursor of the strong seismic sequence (M = 5.0–6.0) that occurred during March – May 1998 in Slovenia at a location over 400 km from the receiver, but lying in the middle of the transmitter-receiver path. In this case, it is possible that an ionospheric disturbance, produced by the pre-seismic processes, might have occurred.

2011 ◽  
Vol 221 ◽  
pp. 111-116 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ming Feng Hao ◽  
Yong Liu ◽  
Xue Tao He ◽  
Peng Cheng Xie ◽  
Wei Min Yang

In this paper, self-designed electrospinning equipment was used to make a series of electrospinning experiments with materials of polypropylene. The influences of the receiver area, the upper plate area, and the overlapping area between the receiver and the upper plate, on the melt spinning electric field, the spinning efficiency, and the fiber diameter, were investigated respectively. The results showed that when the other parameters were kept unchanged, with the increase of the receiver’s diameter, the electric field strength and spinning efficiency increased, and the fiber diameter increased at first and then decreased; the bigger the overlapping area between the receiver and the upper plate, the more stable the vertical spinning path.


The authors describe a double canal-ray source, and discuss the general features of greatly improved analyses obtained through its use. A small canal-ray tube is placed along the axis of a hollow core of the magnet, the pole tip itself serving as the cathode with one small central perforation. A similar tube is symmetrically placed in the other core so that the double canal-ray tube provides opposing beams in the region between the pole faces. Here small field plates are set up to establish strong electric fields perpendicular to the canal rays. Light is taken out at right angles to both fields and analyzed by a six-prism glass spectrograph. Displacements and qualitative intensities are tabulated mainly for components of three line groups built round and including λλ 4922, 4472 and 4026 respectively. H = 25,800 oersteds while E = 10-131 kV/cm. Resolved components remain sharp at all field strengths. A few components correspond to Δm = ± 2; but there is no evidence for Δm = ± 3. Intensities of many components are critically dependent upon electric field strength, and in at least one notable case (2 3 P-5 3 G) displacements are similarly dependent. The latter is attributed to repulsion between levels of different m values which nevertheless are forced to cross over each other.


2005 ◽  
Vol 5 (5) ◽  
pp. 727-732 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. F. Biagi ◽  
L. Castellana ◽  
T. Maggipinto ◽  
R. Piccolo ◽  
A. Minafra ◽  
...  

Abstract. On February 1996, a receiver able to measure the electric field strength of LF radio broadcastings, with a sampling frequency of ten minutes, was put into operation in a site (AS) located in central Italy. One of the broadcasting stations selected is MCO (f=216 kHz), located in southeast France, 518 km far from the receiver. The MCO data collected since February 1996 up to September 2004 were examined and, at first, the night time data and the day time data (in winter and summer) were separated. Then, the wavelet analysis on the night and day time data was applied. The main result of the analysis was the appearance of a very clear anomaly during summer (July–August) 1998, at day time and at night time. The anomaly is a strong exaltation of the signal components with period in the 25–40 days range. Theoretical calculations of electric field strength were made and the only way to justify this anomaly seems to be the occurrence of an increase of the ground wave propagation mode of the radio signal. Such an increase could have been produced by an increase of the ground conductivity and by modifications of some parameter of the troposphere, mainly the refractive index. On 15 August 1998 a seismic sequence started with 17 earthquakes (M=2.2–4.6) on the Reatini mountains, a seismogenic zone located 30 km far from the AS receiver along the path MCO-AS. In this paper, the possibility that the previous radio anomaly can be a precursor of this seismic sequence is proposed.  


2007 ◽  
Vol 1034 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shinji Fukao ◽  
Yoshikazu Nakanishi ◽  
Tadahiro Mizoguchi ◽  
Yoshiaki Ito ◽  
Toru Nakamura ◽  
...  

AbstractIt is well known that by changing the temperature for the polarized hemimorphy single crystal, such as LiNbO3 or BaTiO3, the electric field with high intensity is generated and then atmospheric gas atoms or molecules around the crystal are ionized. Using these phenomena, X-rays could be radiated by the bremsstrahlung radiation of electrons in low pressure [1,2]. However, this method has some disadvantages. For example, it is difficult to maintain the intensity of X-rays for a long term. The gas pressure range, where the intensity of X-rays is high, is narrow. The purpose of this study is to increase the intensity of X-rays in a high vacuum. In a low vacuum, positive charges generated by the ionization of gas molecules near the crystal weaken the electric field strength. Consequently, the intensity of X-rays also becomes weak. On the other hand, in a high vacuum, the number of electrons decreases. Thus, thermally emitted electrons are supplied to the X-rays radiation system in high vacuum to increase and stabilize the intensity of X-rays.The -z plane of the congruent LiNbO3 single crystal polarized in the z-axis direction of a 5 mm thickness and a 10 mm diameter was opposed to the Cu target of a 10 μm thickness placed at a distance of 21 mm from the –z plane in the gas pressure of 10-2-10-4 Pa. The temperature of crystal was changed between from -5 to 75 °C using Peltiert device. The temperature history of the crystal consists of a repetition of a series of the increasing and decreasing processes with the same period. Filament of thorium-added-tungsten as a thermal electrons source was placed at a distance of approximately 20 mm from the crystal side edge. DC current flowing in the filament was adjusted from 0 to 4 A.In the increasing process of the temperature, the characteristic X-ray of Nb was radiated. This result indicates that the sign of net charge on -z plane of the crystal is positive. Because thermally emitted electrons are supplied to the positively charged –z plane, the electric field strength generated by the crystal is very low. Thus, the intensity of characteristic X-ray of Nb is low. On the other hand, in the decreasing process of the temperature, the characteristic X-ray of Cu was radiated. At the pressure of approximately 10-2 Pa and the filament current of 2.5 A, the intensity of X-rays showed the local maximum. If electrons are supplied more, synthetic electric field strength is weakened by the electric field made by the electron. The intensity of X-rays using thermal electron source was ten or more times higher at the maximum than that without the source and was almost comparable as the case of a low vacuum or more than it. Using thermal electron source, the intensity of X-rays increased with decreasing the pressure down to approximately 10-2 Pa and became constant at lower pressure.


2016 ◽  
Vol 136 (10) ◽  
pp. 1420-1421
Author(s):  
Yusuke Tanaka ◽  
Yuji Nagaoka ◽  
Hyeon-Gu Jeon ◽  
Masaharu Fujii ◽  
Haruo Ihori

2021 ◽  
Vol 87 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Swati Baruah ◽  
U. Sarma ◽  
R. Ganesh

Lane formation dynamics in externally driven pair-ion plasma (PIP) particles is studied in the presence of external magnetic field using Langevin dynamics (LD) simulation. The phase diagram obtained distinguishing the no-lane and lane states is systematically determined from a study of various Coulomb coupling parameter values. A peculiar lane formation-disintegration parameter space is identified; lane formation area extended to a wide range of Coulomb coupling parameter values is observed before disappearing to a mixed phase. The different phases are identified by calculating the order parameter. This and the critical parameters are calculated directly from LD simulation. The critical electric field strength value above which the lanes are formed distinctly is obtained, and it is observed that in the presence of the external magnetic field, the PIP system requires a higher value of the electric field strength to enter into the lane formation state than that in the absence of the magnetic field. We further find out the critical value of electric field frequency beyond which the system exhibits a transition back to the disordered state and this critical frequency is found as an increasing function of the electric field strength in the presence of an external magnetic field. The movement of the lanes is also observed in a direction perpendicular to that of the applied electric and magnetic field directions, which reveals the existence of the electric field drift in the system under study. We also use an oblique force field as the external driving force, both in the presence and absence of the external magnetic field. The application of this oblique force changes the orientation of the lane structures for different applied oblique angle values.


Author(s):  
Dhaval Solanki ◽  
Zeynab Rezaee ◽  
Anirban Dutta ◽  
Uttama Lahiri

Abstract Background Investigation of lobule-specific electric field effects of cerebellar transcranial direct current stimulation (ctDCS) on overground gait performance has not been performed, so this study aimed to investigate the feasibility of two lobule-specific bilateral ctDCS montages to facilitate overground walking in chronic stroke. Methods Ten chronic post-stroke male subjects participated in this repeated-measure single-blind crossover study, where we evaluated the single-session effects of two bilateral ctDCS montages that applied 2 mA via 3.14 cm2 disc electrodes for 15 min targeting (a) dentate nuclei (also, anterior and posterior lobes), and (b) lower-limb representations (lobules VIIb-IX). A two-sided Wilcoxon rank-sum test was performed at a 5% significance level on the percent normalized change measures in the overground gait performance. Partial least squares regression (PLSR) analysis was performed on the quantitative gait parameters as response variables to the mean lobular electric field strength as the predictors. Clinical assessments were performed with the Ten-Meter walk test (TMWT), Timed Up & Go (TUG), and the Berg Balance Scale based on minimal clinically important differences (MCID). Results The ctDCS montage specific effect was found significant using a two-sided Wilcoxon rank-sum test at a 5% significance level for 'Step Time Affected Leg' (p = 0.0257) and '%Stance Time Unaffected Leg' (p = 0.0376). The changes in the quantitative gait parameters were found to be correlated to the mean electric field strength in the lobules based on PLSR analysis (R2 statistic = 0.6574). Here, the mean electric field strength at the cerebellar lobules, Vermis VIIIb, Ipsi-lesional IX, Vermis IX, Ipsi-lesional X, had the most loading and were positively related to the 'Step Time Affected Leg' and '%Stance Time Unaffected Leg,' and negatively related to the '%Swing Time Unaffected Leg,' '%Single Support Time Affected Leg.' Clinical assessments found similar improvement in the TMWT (MCID: 0.10 m/s), TUG (MCID: 8 s), and BBS score (MCID: 12.5 points) for both the ctDCS montages. Conclusion Our feasibility study found an association between the lobular mean electric field strength and the changes in the quantitative gait parameters following a single ctDCS session in chronic stroke. Both the ctDCS montages improved the clinical outcome measures that should be investigated with a larger sample size for clinical validation. Trial registration: Being retrospectively registered.


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