Simulation of Infrasonic Acoustic Wave Imprints on Airglow Layers During the 2016 m7.8 Kaikoura Earthquake

 

Simulations of hypothesized but unobserved mesopause airglow (MA) disturbances generated by infrasonic acoustic waves (IAWs) during the 2016 M7.8 Kaikoura earthquake are performed. Realistic surface displacements are calculated in a forward seismic wave propagation model and incorporated into a 3D nonlinear compressible neutral atmosphere model as a source of IAWs at the surface-air interface. Inchin et al. 2021 previously showed that Global Positioning System-based total electron content (TEC) observations can be used to constrain the finite-fault kinematics of the Kaikoura earthquake. However, due to limitations of GNSS network coverage and coalescence of nonlinear IAW fronts, they pointed to the relative insensitivity of the observed near-zenith TEC perturbations to the rupture evolution on the Papatea fault (PF). Here, we demonstrate that MA observations may have been able to supplement the investigation of the PF, providing information on both the timing of rupture initiation and its direction of propagation. The amplitudes of perturbations of vertically integrated volume emission rates for the simulated hydroxyl OH(3,1) and atomic oxygen O(1S) 557.7 nm reach ~18% peak-to-peak, and ~3.2% (5.8 K) peak-to-peak perturbations in OH(3,1) temperature. Our results suggest that observations of nighttime MA imprints of coseismic IAWs are feasible with ground-based imagers, and may supplement the study of finite-fault kinematics of large crustal earthquakes.

Key points:
  • Simulations of mesopause OH and OI layer responses to infrasonic acoustic waves driven by the 2016 M7.8 Kaikoura earthquake are performed
  • Airglow perturbations from coseismic infrasonic acoustic waves replicate the progression of rupture
  • Airglow observations may supplement traditional seismic datasets for future investigations of large earthquake finite-fault kinematics

This collection hosts the data and animations associated with the journal article, Simulation of infrasonic acoustic wave imprints on airglow layers during the 2016 M7.8 Kaikoura earthquake. The full-text manuscript is published in JGR Space Physics.

DOI: 10.1029/2021JA029529

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Submissions from 2022

 

Simulation results with kinematic slip model #1, P. A. Inchin, J. Aguilar Guerrero, J B. Snively, and Y. Kaneko

 

Simulation results with kinematic slip model #2, P. A. Inchin, J. Aguilar Guerrero, J B. Snively, and Y. Kaneko

 

Simulation results with kinematic slip model #3, P. A. Inchin, J. Aguilar Guerrero, J B. Snively, and Y. Kaneko

 

Simulation results with kinematic slip model #4, P. A. Inchin, J. Aguilar Guerrero, J B. Snively, and Y. Kaneko

 

Supporting information for Figure 3, P. A. Inchin, J. Aguilar Guerrero, J B. Snively, and Y. Kaneko

 

Synthetic images, P. A. Inchin, J. Aguilar Guerrero, J B. Snively, and Y. Kaneko

 

Table of maximum peak-to-peak perturbations, P. A. Inchin, J. Aguilar Guerrero, J B. Snively, and Y. Kaneko

 

Temporal evolution of rupture in kinematic slip model #3, P. A. Inchin, J. Aguilar Guerrero, J B. Snively, and Y. Kaneko