{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,14]],"date-time":"2026-05-14T17:29:54Z","timestamp":1778779794068,"version":"3.51.4"},"reference-count":55,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"1","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2021,12,23]],"date-time":"2021-12-23T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1640217600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"Government of West Bengal","award":["DST-INSPIRE 170619"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["DST-INSPIRE 170619"]}]},{"name":"Government of West Bengal","award":["DST-INSPIRE 170017"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["DST-INSPIRE 170017"]}]},{"name":"Government of West Bengal","award":["DST-SERB (EMR\/2016\/003889)"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["DST-SERB (EMR\/2016\/003889)"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Entropy"],"abstract":"<jats:p>We focus on the possible thermal channel of the well-known Lithosphere\u2013Atmosphere\u2013Ionosphere Coupling (LAIC) mechanism to identify the behavior of thermal anomalies during and prior to strong seismic events. For this, we investigate the variation of Surface Latent Heat Flux (SLHF) as resulting from satellite observables. We demonstrate a spatio-temporal variation in the SLHF before and after a set of strong seismic events occurred in Kathmandu, Nepal, and Kumamoto, Japan, having magnitudes of 7.8, 7.3, and 7.0, respectively. Before the studied earthquake cases, significant enhancements in the SLHF were identified near the epicenters. Additionally, in order to check whether critical dynamics, as the signature of a complex phenomenon such as earthquake preparation, are reflected in the SLHF data, we performed a criticality analysis using the natural time analysis method. The approach to criticality was detected within one week before each mainshock.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/e24010023","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2021,12,23]],"date-time":"2021-12-23T21:40:21Z","timestamp":1640295621000},"page":"23","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":36,"title":["Unusual Surface Latent Heat Flux Variations and Their Critical Dynamics Revealed before Strong Earthquakes"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"24","author":[{"given":"Soujan","family":"Ghosh","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Indian Centre for Space Physics, 43, Chalantika, Garia Station Road, Kolkata 700084, India"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Swati","family":"Chowdhury","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Indian Centre for Space Physics, 43, Chalantika, Garia Station Road, Kolkata 700084, India"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-5354-6803","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Subrata","family":"Kundu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Indian Centre for Space Physics, 43, Chalantika, Garia Station Road, Kolkata 700084, India"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Sudipta","family":"Sasmal","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Indian Centre for Space Physics, 43, Chalantika, Garia Station Road, Kolkata 700084, India"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-9044-2555","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Dimitrios Z.","family":"Politis","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Ancient Olive Grove Campus, University of West Attica, 12241 Egaleo, Greece"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-5928-4587","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Stelios M.","family":"Potirakis","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Ancient Olive Grove Campus, University of West Attica, 12241 Egaleo, Greece"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Masashi","family":"Hayakawa","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Hayakawa Institute of Seismo Electromagnetics Co., Ltd., University of Electro-Communications Alliance Center, 521, 1-1-1 Kojma-cho, Chofu, Tokyo 182-0026, Japan"},{"name":"Advanced & Wireless Communications Research Center, University of Electro-Communications, Chofu, Tokyo 182-8585, Japan"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Suman","family":"Chakraborty","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Physical Research Laboratory, Navrangpura, Ahmedabad 380009, India"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Sandip K.","family":"Chakrabarti","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Indian Centre for Space Physics, 43, Chalantika, Garia Station Road, Kolkata 700084, India"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2021,12,23]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Hayakawa, M. 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