Variation of land surface temperature in Yilan-Yitongfault zone of northeastern China

GPS results show enhancement of tensile deformation in northeastern China, particularly in Yilan-Yitong fault zone, due to the great Tohoku-oki, Japan, earthquake of 11 March 2011. The question of whether the earthquake had the same impact on land surface temperature or not deserves to be studied. In this study, land surface temperature variation in the Yilan-Yitong fault zone has been analyzed by using the land surface temperature product of moderate-resolution imaging spectroradiometer (MODIS) research group during 2000 to 2011. After removing the stable annual variation component, the temperature residuals were analyzed. The purpose of this study is to find the thermal information related to tectonic activity by temporal and spatial analysis of land surface temperature observation with the influence of topography,latitude and other interferences being excluded. The result shows a significant continuous temperature decline for the two months at the beginning of 2001 and 2010 in the northern part of Yilan-Yitong fault. Meteorological factors are excluded by analyzing geo-temperature and rainfall data. Based on GPS studies, the Yilan-Yitong fault exhibited remarkable increase of tensile strain rate after the 2011 Tohoku-oki earthquake in Japan, and the tensile strain would lead to temperature decline according to experiment result. Therefore, the phenomenon of temperature decrease is presumably caused by the tensile activity of the fault.