Co-seismic characterization analysis in PWV and land-atmospheric observations associated with Luding Ms 6.8 earthquake occurrence in China on September 5, 2022

Abstract

The Sichuan Luding earthquake that struck on September 5, 2022 is one of the strongest earthquakes in China in recent years. The analysis of precipitable water vapor (PWV) retrieved from the ground-based global navigation satellite system (GNSS), surface pressure (SP), surface latent heat flux (SLHF), and land surface temperature (LST) from the reanalysis dataset was carried out in the epicenter and the nearby areas. The results show that PWV decreases distinctly and reaches the trough at the outburst with significant minimums of 43.21 mm and 37.84 mm over the nearest SCSM and SCTQ station from the epicenter. SLHF also has the same trend, and SP increased. Additionally, the LST analysis from two-temporal series was conducted to reveal that the Luding event accompanies by a low-temperature anomaly. Based on the background field established from the same period of the last ten years, LST at the epicenter on the day of occurrence was 5.68 °C lower than in previous years. Furthermore, the strongest low-temperature anomalies were observed from September 4 to 6, with the anomaly index of −1.95, −1.71, and −1.60, respectively. It is plain that the parameters from the land and atmosphere perform the anomalies at the minimum during the Luding earthquake.