First evidence for correlations between electron fluxes measured by NOAA-POES satellites and large seismic events

We present the result for the search of correlations between the precipitation of low energy electrons () trapped within the Van Allen Belts and earthquakes with magnitude above 5 Richter scale. We used the electron data measured by the NOAA POES 15,16,17 and 18 satellites collected during a period of 13 years, corresponding to about 18 thousands M>5 earthquakes registered in the NEIC catalog of the U.S. Geological Survey. We defined Particle Burst (PB) the fluctuations of electrons counting rate having a probability <1% to be a background fluctuation. Within a time window of ±36 hours, we observe a clear correlation peak at −1.25±0.25 hours. This result is obtained using data driven algorithms independent from specific modelling of the lithosphere-ionosphere coupling and adding the data collected by each POES satellite. The significance of the observed correlation peak is 5.7 s.d. corresponding to a probability of of being a statistical fluctuation. The observed correlation involves about of the earthquakes in that period of time. It provides the first statistically convincing evidence for the existence of a detectable coupling mechanism between the lithosphere and the magnetosphere having well defined time characteristics.