Thermal Infrared Satellite survey at the time of M9 Tohoku earthquake/tsunami (Japan, March 11, 2011)

A Robust Satellite data analysis Technique (RST) has been proposed to investigate possible relations between earthquake occurrence and space-time fluctuations of Earth's emitted TIR radiation observed from satellite. The RST analysis is based on a statistically definition of "TIR anomalies" allowing their identification even in very different natural (e.g. related to atmosphere and/or surface) and observational (e.g. related to time/season, but also to solar and satellite zenithal angles) conditions. The correlation analysis (in the space-time domain) with earthquake occurrence is always carried out by using a validation/confutation approach, in order to verify the presence/absence of anomalous space-time TIR transients in the presence/absence of significant seismic activity. The RST approach was already tested in the case of tens of earthquakes occurred in different continents (Europe, Asia, America and Africa), in various geo-tectonic settings (compressive, extensional and transcurrent) and with a wide range of magnitudes (from 4.0 to 7.9). In this paper results achieved by applying RST analysis to several years of TIR satellite records collected from the geostationary satellite MTSAT over Japan area, will be presented for the case of Tohoku earthquake (M9, March 11, 2011). For the first time it was possible to detect, also over the sea, significant TIR anomalies, in some space-time relation with the occurrence of an earthquake having its epicenter offshore. Consequences of such results on physical models until now proposed to explain possible correlation among TIR anomalies and earthquake's preparatory phases will be also discussed.