Anomalous changes in column water vapor after Gujarat earthquake Original Research Article

Remote sensing data have been used to analyze the changes in column water vapor in response to the Gujarat earthquake, occurred on January 26, 2001. Anomalous changes in water vapor have been found over the surrounding land and oceanic regions around epicentral region before and after the earthquake. The sudden increase in column water vapor in the atmosphere before the earthquake may be attributed to the increase in evaporation due to increase in surface latent heat flux (SLHF). SLHF is found to increase two days before the earthquake and decrease after the main event on January 26, 2001 before it acquires the background value. Water vapor over the epicentral region is found to increase just before the earthquake whereas over the ocean, water vapor is found to increase after the earthquake.