ELMOS: Electric and Magnetic field Observation Satellite
- Paper number
IAC-07-B1.I.08
- Author
Mr. Tetsuya Kodama, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), Japan
- Coauthor
Prof. Koh-ichiro Oyama, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)/ISAS, Japan
- Year
2007
- Abstract
ELMOS is a small satellite system which observe electromagnetic environment at the low earth orbit. The main objective of ELMOS is observation of electromagnetic phenomena associated with earthquakes. Recent research shows the possible association of electromagnetic anomalies associated with earthquakes from satellite observation data. Some scientists suggested that such electromagnetic phenomena could be interpreted as precursors to earthquakes, so many satellite projects have been proposed and some are launched. The phenomena in the ionosphere and the magnetosphere associated with earthquakes have been observed by a lot of scientific satellites since a few decades ago. Especially, the radiation of the ULF/ELF/VLF electromagnetic waves are observed by the satellites such as Intercosmos-19, Intercosmos-Bulgaria 1300, Aureol-3, Cosmos-1809, Intercosmos-24, and OGO-6. These have been already established as an electromagnetic radiation associated with earthquakes, and as for the ELF radiation, are especially clear in the former USSR according to a quantitative analysis to hundreds of earthquakes. They already suggested the possibility observing seismoelectromagnetics by satellite in the 1980s. Although electromagnetic anomalies associated with earthquakes were occasionally observed by many satellites, event numbers are not still enough for statistical studies. Large earthquakes greater than magnitude 7 occur 10 to 20 times every year all over the world, so it is a reasonable that a dedicated satellite to observe most of these earthquakes is constructed. The first seismo-electromagnetic observation satellite, Kompass was launched in 2001 by Russia but it failed in communication. Next, Quakesat was launched by Quakefinder which is an American private company in 2003. Then French DEMETER and Russian-Ukrainian Sich-1M was launched in 2004. Sich-1M carries "Variant" instrument for seismo-electromagnetic observation and was expected observation from different altitude of that of DEMETER. In 2005, Italian astronaut Robert Vittori has installed an instrument "LAZIO-SiRad" on International Space Station to detect variations in the radiation belts before earthquakes. At present, it is reported that satellite projects are prepared in Italy, Mexico and China. The geomagnetic field observation and space environment monitoring are already well established. Therefore, these approved technologies make it possible to construct a low-cost satellite for this study.
- Abstract document