Physical mechanism of ionospheric total electron content perturbations over a seismoactive region

A mechanism for the total electron content (TEC) perturbation in the ionosphere during seismic activity strengthening is proposed. The spatial distribution of the TEC perturbation is shown to be determined by the joint effect of the following two factors: the heating of the ionosphere by electric current and the plasma drift in the electric field of this current. The TEC perturbation behavior depends on the relationship between these processes. The current arises in a global electric circuit as the EMF, which is related to the dynamics of charged aerosols injected into the atmosphere, and comes into being in atmospheric surface layers. The developed model allows calculation of the spatial TEC distribution in the ionosphere for a prescribed horizontal distribution of the charged aerosol concentration at the Earth’s surface.