Response of Magnetometer and GPS Data before two Strong Seismic events of 24th August, 2018 and 1st March, 2019 in Peru

Earthquakes (EQs) constitute serious natural environmental hazards threatening lives on earth and are capable of inducing large-scale disturbances in global ionospheric dynamics and related parameters.Presently, there is no doubt that multi-precursors analysis is a necessary step to better understand the mechanism before large earthquakes, however, the swiftness in response by the various devices has not been fully studied.In this study, we investigated the response of both the magnetometer and the Global Positioning System (GPS) - total electron content (TEC) data simultaneously from two strong seismic events that occurred on August 24, 2018 (M7.1) and March 1, 2019 (M7.0) in Peru to ascertain their responsiveness to these events. Both magnetometer and the Global Positioning System data were simultaneously acquired within the same period for each seismic event. Quiet and disturbed plots were generated and correlated for the respective equipment in each EQ. Interplanetary, solar and geomagnetic data were also downloaded during these periods for the different events. For the March 1st, 2019 EQ, the difference between quiet and disturbed solar quiet (sq) as obtained by the magnetometer ranged from 5 nT to 50 nT. The highest variations occurred on February 28 and March 4, 2019 while the least was recorded on March 6, 2019. Both sets of devices contemporaneously presented irregularities on February 26 and 27, 2019. However, with respect to the swiftness of response, the magnetometer responded in the morning (being swifter) between 7 and 11am while the GPS responded to the signals in the evening (17:00 hours). Also, the M7.1 August 24 2018 EQ, was investigated between August 17th and 30th. Findings revealed that only the magnetometer was able to respond to the signals on August 17th, 18th, 20th and 22nd, 2018 from this EQ, whereas the GPS had no response. Hence, in both studied EQs with different time windows, the magnetometer was more sensitive (being swifter) than the GPS in responding to the signals from the seismic events.