Natural Hazards and Earth System Science www.nat-hazards-earth-syst-sci.net 1561-8633 1684-9981 9 1 2009 10.5194/nhess-9-3-2009 http://www.nat-hazards-earth-syst-sci.net/9/3/2009/ http://www.nat-hazards-earth-syst-sci.net/9/3/2009/nhess-9-3-2009.html http://www.nat-hazards-earth-syst-sci.net/9/3/2009/nhess-9-3-2009.pdf 3 15 2009-01-05 Ionospheric quasi-static electric field anomalies during seismic activity in August–September 1981 M. Gousheva gousheva@space.bas.bg D. Danov P. Hristov M. Matova Space Research Institute, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Sofia, Bulgaria Solar-Terrestrial Influences Laboratory, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Sofia, Bulgaria Geological Institute, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Sofia, Bulgaria The paper proposes new results, analyses and information for the plate tectonic situation in the processing of INTERCOSMOS-BULGARIA-1300 satellite data about anomalies of the quasi-static electric field in the upper ionosphere over activated earthquake source regions at different latitudes. The earthquake catalogue is made on the basis of information from the United State Geological Survey (USGS) website. The disturbances in ionospheric quasi-static electric fields are recorded by IESP-1 instrument aboard the INTERCOSMOS-BULGARIA-1300 satellite and they are compared with significant seismic events from the period 14 August–20 September 1981 in magnetically very quiet, quiet and medium quiet days. The main tectonic characteristics of the seismically activated territories are also taken in account. The main goal of the above research work is to enlarge the research of possible connections between anomalous vertical electric field penetrations into the ionosphere and the earthquake manifestations, also to propose tectonic arguments for the observed phenomena. The studies are represented in four main blocks: (i) previous studies of similar problems, (ii) selection of satellite, seismic and plate tectonic data, (iii) data processing with new specialized software and observations of the quasi-static electric field and (iiii) summary, comparison of new with previous results in our studies and conclusion. We establish the high informativity of the vertical component <i>Ez</i> of the quasi-static electric field in the upper ionosphere according observations by INTERCOSMOS-BULGARIA-1300 that are placed above considerably activated earthquake sources. 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