Remote Sensing of Lithosphere–Atmosphere–Ionosphere Coupling Prior to Earthquakes and Other Natural Hazards: Second Edition

Dear Colleagues,

Following the successful previous Special Issue (https://www.mdpi.com/journal/remotesensing/special_issues/LAIC_EarthquakePrecursors), we launched a second edition, integrating new topics. The aim of this Special Issue is to collect papers that use remote sensing, especially satellite data and new methodologies, to understand the preparatory phase of medium–large earthquakes in the world and other natural hazards like volcano eruptions, extreme weather, and geomagnetic storms/substorms. In the last decades, several satellite observations have been used not only for co-seismic precise effects estimation (such as ground displacement estimated by the InSAR technique) but also to search for possible precursor signals. Some satellites have been launched for this purpose, such as DEMETER (Detection of Electro-Magnetic Emissions Transmitted from Earthquake Regions), which flew from 2004 to 2010, and the CSES (China Seismo Electromagnetic Satellite) mission, which is composed of CSES-01, launched in orbit on 2 February 2018, and its successor, CSES-02, which was recently launched on 14 June 2025. Other satellites, especially those dedicated to Earth Observation, such as MODIS on TERRA/AQUA by NOAA or Swarm by ESA, provide crucial remote sensing data that are very useful for investigating possible pre-earthquake signals. For example, detecting bursts of particles and ionospheric disturbances several months or a few hours before the occurrence of medium–large earthquakes.

Furthermore, papers concerning earthquake investigations using remote sensing data are precious for understanding the physics and mechanisms of such phenomena.

We welcome papers that explore the statistical significance of pre-earthquake processes that occurred in the lithosphere, atmosphere and ionosphere, as detected by ground observations or satellite and or other methods. Papers with deterministic, empirical, or analytical models studying the preparation phase of the earthquakes including, but not limited to, the lithosphere, atmosphere, and ionosphere coupling (LAIC) effects are also welcome.

The interaction of different Earth layers, the so-called lithosphere, atmosphere, ionosphere coupling, has also been proposed on the occasion of volcano-eruption, both as a pre-eruption phenomenon as well as a co-volcanic disturbance. We welcome papers that investigate active volcanoes using remote sensing to determine their potential hazard and their influence on the atmosphere and ionosphere.

This Special Issue also seeks to advance our understanding of other significant natural hazards, such as extreme weather (tropical cyclones/hurricanes/typhoons, heavy rainfall, storm surges, tornadoes, thunderstorms with high lightning activity and flash flooding), as well as geomagnetic storms/substorms. Such geomagnetic storm phenomena include ionospheric irregularities and the magnetospheric–ionospheric–atmospheric coupling. Studies using satellite data, eventually integrated with ground-based observations, numerical modelling, and artificial intelligence approaches, are particularly encouraged for submission.

Research on new case studies (earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, geomagnetic storms and other natural hazards), reviews, new methods, ideas of future perspectives and applications to investigate the interactions between the geo-layers are warmly welcome.

Dr. Dedalo Marchetti
Prof. Dr. Essam Ghamry
Dr. Cristiano Fidani
Guest Editors

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