On the sensitivity of long-term magnetotelluric monitoring in Southern Italy and source-dependent robust single station transfer function variability

Since 2007, a permanent magnetotelluric (MT) monitoring station has been working in the seismic area of the Agri Valley (Basilicata region, southern Italy) in order to investigate the stability of the MT transfer function. The station was installed in a rural area near the supposed seismogenic fault of the strong earthquake (Mw = 6.9) that struck the Agri Valley in 1857. Analysing about 4 yr of MT data characterized by a low seismic activity, the long-term systematic variations of robust single station MT transfer function estimates were observed in two different sounding period ranges. First, a significant seasonal component of variability for short periods was noted; these short periods were up to 16 s and were linked to variations in wetting/drying of soil moisture in the shallower layers. Second, a connection between the monitored estimates and global geomagnetic activity, Ap index, was found, particularly in the [20–100 s] period range. Analysing remote reference results and tipper estimates in shorter monitoring window, it was shown that such effect cannot be explained by a local or incoherent noise, and a large-scale coherent source should be claimed. We show that this effect is subtle because it produces smooth estimates, satisfying the dispersion relationship between apparent resistivity and phase, with small error bars. As the global geomagnetic activity level increases, robust estimators, like the median value, can be considered as a representative of the estimates due to the natural source, and they tend to stabilize when the Ap index approaches 10. It is also worth noting that our monitored time window includes the recent global minimum of solar activity which occurred in 2009, thus enhancing the estimate dependence on the Ap index.