Earthquake Prediction with Meteorological Satellite Imagery

Shunji Murai*

Abstract

Here in this paper video images of Japanese meteorological satellite “HIMAWARI” are used to develop a new method of earthquake prediction in which special cloud anomalies appear in advance of large earthquakes. The method is based on expert image interpretation system. 40 earthquakes larger than M6.0 which occurred between 2016 and 2020 in Japan are validated. The results show that 65.0% of the earthquakes larger than M6.0, 75.0% of earthquakes larger than M6.3, 88.9% of earthquakes larger than M6.5, 100.0% of earthquakes larger than M6.7 were preceded by cloud anomalies. 8 predictions were disseminated to the customers on a business base since 2020/12/2 to 2021/9/27. There were 5 perfect predictions, 2 almost correct and 1 incorrect in terms of its magnitude. Time and location of the 8 predictions were all correct. This study shows a good potential of earthquake prediction with satellite cloud anomaly.

Keywords: Earthquake prediction, cloud anomaly, Meteorological Satellite Imagery

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