Detection of microwave signals associated with rock failures in an earthquake from satellite-borne microwave radiometer data

It was experimentally confirmed that microwave is emitted during the compression of rocks. Land-surface deformations are likely to be accompanied by rock failures. From the experimental results, we could conclude the microwave signals generated by rock failures near the land surface are detectable by a satelliteborne radiometer. Therefore, we developed an algorithm to evaluate microwave energy generated by rock failures on the land surface, and applied the algorithm to the data of the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer for Earth-Observation System for the earthquake that struck Sichuan, China, on May 12, 2008. As a result, we detected definitive microwave signals around the epicenter one day after the main shock only in the entire observation period of six years. This paper presents the details of the algorithm and the analysis results.