Cloud anomalies and earthquakes

Abstract

Relevance. An attempt is made in present paper to generalize the results of observations of the not yet fully understood phenomenon, usually called “linear cloud anomalies” (LCA), observed over the areas of impending strong earthquakes or intensification of tectonic activity. In the English-language literature, you can find a more concise name “earthquake clouds”. Despite the fairly rich literature on this issue, the physical nature of LСA remains unclear. Aim. It is the identificationof the physical mechanism of the formation of LCA before earthquakes that is the most urgent problem. In this work, we take a step forward in this direction, because the main aim of our study is to find the sources for the formation of LCA. Methods. We have obtained experimental evidence that LCA of all types have embryonic structures in the lower atmosphere at a level of about 100 m from the Earth’s surface, which proves the connection between the LCA genesis and the processes initiated in the earth’s crust. The source of information used to verify the formation of LCA is the meteorological data obtained near the earth’s surface from the assimilative model GEOS FP. Results. An attempt is made to trace the genesis of LСA from the earth’s surface to the level of the formed cloud structure, and a physical mechanism for the generation of LСA is proposed, including maintaining their geometric linearity under conditions of a turbulent atmosphere. This work was conceived together with A. V. Nikolaev, we will try to include in the work everything that was discussed with him during its preparation, including his principled opinion that “the lack of clarity of physical principles cannot be the reason for distrust of experimental results”.