Ahead-of-Tsunami magnetic disturbance detection using intrinsic mode functions: Tohoku-Oki earthquake case study

We document magnetic disturbances that occurred during the Tohoku-Oki tsunami of 11 March 2011 using empirical mode decomposition (EMD) in a dataset derived from a network of ground-based magnetometers (INTERMAGNET and GIS). The disturbances, obtained by filtering the magnetic field data using the first intrinsic mode function (IMF1) of EMD, propagate ahead of the tsunami at a speed in the range of 600–1.6 km/s. They also appear 3 min (near-field) to 2 h (far-field) earlier than the tsunami arrival at the magnetic observatories. We refer to these distur- bances as ahead-of-tsunami magnetic disturbances (ATMDs). A comparison with seismometer data shows them arriving 10 min after the arrival of Rayleigh waves. Their association with both seismogenic and tsunamigenic processes is discussed, and it is argued that the tsunamigenic process can well explain the magnetic disturbance propagation characteristics at the far-field. At near- field, the ATMDs are the coseismic magnetic signatures mainly driven by surface Rayleigh waves. Monitoring these ATMDs can be extremely useful for the early warning of the tsunami.