Response of the Lower and Upper Ionosphere to Earthquakes in Turkey on February 6, 2023

Abstract—Ground-based magnetometers and ionospheric radio probing by means of GPS were used to analyze and interpret specific variations of the geomagnetic field and the total electron content of the ionosphere during strong catastrophic earthquakes in Turkey on February 6, 2023. It is shown that the ionospheric responses to these earthquakes recorded at distances of 1200–1600 km from the epicenter in the lower ionosphere and at distances of up to 500 km from the epicenter in the upper ionosphere can be interpreted in terms of the propagation of the Rayleigh seismic wave and atmospheric waves—shock, acoustic and internal, that is, those waves that are generated by the earthquake itself. The energy of seismic events was estimated from the ionospheric response.