A New Instrumental Array in Sichuan, China, to Monitor Vibrations and Perturbations of the Lithosphere, Atmosphere, and Ionosphere

Scientists investigating the coupling between the lithosphere, atmosphere, and ionosphere (LAI) require multiple instruments installed on and near the Earth’s surface and aboard satellites orbiting the Earth. However, challenges always occur owing to a lack of observation data from other monitoring instruments and/or the distance between distinct instruments. A novel system for monitoring vibrations and perturbations in the LAI (MVP–LAI) was established in the countryside of Leshan City, Sichuan Province, China, in June 2021. Twelve different types of instruments with 18 devices were set within an area of 50 m × 50 m. The other two were installed approximately 20 km away to avoid interference. These instruments routinely monitor the changes in at least 14 geophysical parameters with short sampling intervals, available for capturing waves propagating from the subsurface to the ionosphere. Once the observations retrieved from the China Seismo-Electromagnetic Satellite and the radio occultation are integrated, the monitoring of vibrations and perturbations can reach ~ 800 km above the Earth’s surface. The system is mainly operated by the China University of Geoscience (Wuhan), China and will officially start functioning in September 2021. All the efforts benefit the investigation of the causal mechanisms of LAI coupling and expose the potential sources of vibrations and perturbations, incorporating observations from other spheres.