Ionospheric anomalies detected by ground-based GPS before the Mw7.9 Wenchuan earthquake of May 12, 2008, China

In this paper, we used the vertical total electron content (VTEC) derived from ground-based GPS observations to examine the ionospheric variations during the Mw7.9 Wenchuan earthquake which occurred on May 12, 2008, in China. The final results showed that the ionospheric VTEC around the epicenter increased obviously 9 days before the earthquake, decreased significantly 6 days before the earthquake, and increased strikingly 3 days before the earthquake. Relative to a normal non-perturbed state of the ionosphere, the maximum anomalies in the 3 days exceeded 40%, 40%, and 70%, respectively. The spatial sizes of the VTEC decrement and increment by more than 30% extended larger than 1500 km in latitude and 4000 km in longitude. Moreover, the maximum anomalies 6 days and 3 days before the earthquake moved towards the equator.