A spatially localized seismic sequence originated few tens of kilometres offshore the Mediterranean coast of Spain, close to the Ebro river delta, starting on 2013 September 5, and lasting at least until 2013 October. The sequence culminated in a maximal moment magnitude M_w 4.3 earthquake, on 2013 October 1. The most relevant seismogenic feature in the area is the Fosa de Amposta fault system, which includes different strands mapped at different distances to the coast, with a general NE–SW orientation, roughly parallel to the coastline. However, no significant known historical seismicity has involved this fault system in the past. The epicentral region is also located near the offshore platform of the Castor project, where gas is conducted through a pipeline from mainland and where it was recently injected in a depleted oil reservoir, at about 2 km depth. We analyse the temporal evolution of the seismic sequence and use full waveform techniques to derive absolute and relative locations, estimate depths and focal mechanisms for the largest events in the sequence (with magnitude mbLg larger than 3), and compare them to a previous event (2012 April 8, mbLg 3.3) taking place in the same region prior to the gas injection. Moment tensor inversion results show that the overall seismicity in this sequence is characterized by oblique mechanisms with a normal fault component, with a 30° low-dip angle plane oriented NNE–SSW and a subvertical plane oriented NW–SE. The combined analysis of hypocentral location and focal mechanisms could indicate that the seismic sequence corresponds to rupture processes along shallow low-dip surfaces, which could have been triggered by the gas injection in the reservoir, and excludes the activation of the Amposta fault, as its known orientation is inconsistent with focal mechanism results. An alternative scenario includes the iterated triggering of a system of steep faults oriented NW–SE, which were identified by prior marine seismics investigations.

The main objective of the TechTIDE project (warning and mitigation technologies for travelling ionospheric disturbances effects) is the development of an identification and tracking system for travelling ionospheric disturbances (TIDs) which will issue warnings of electron density perturbations over large world regions. The TechTIDE project has put in operation a real-time warning system that provides the results of complementary TID detection methodologies and many potential drivers to help users assess the risks and develop mitigation techniques tailored to their applications. The TechTIDE methodologies are able to detect in real time activity caused by both large-scale and medium-scale TIDs and characterize background conditions and external drivers, as an additional information required by the users to assess the criticality of the ongoing disturbances in real time. TechTIDE methodologies are based on the exploitation of data collected in real time from Digisondes, Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) receivers and Continuous Doppler Sounding System (CDSS) networks. The results are obtained and provided to users in real time. The paper presents the achievements of the project and discusses the challenges faced in the development of the final TechTIDE warning system.

Traveling ionospheric disturbances (TIDs) are the ionospheric signatures of atmospheric gravity waves. Their identification and tracking is important because the TIDs affect all services that rely on predictable ionospheric radio wave propagation. Although various techniques have been proposed to measure TID characteristics, their real‐time implementation still has several difficulties. In this contribution, we present a new technique, based on the analysis of oblique Digisonde‐to‐Digisonde “skymap” observations, to directly identify TIDs and specify the TID wave parameters based on the measurement of angle of arrival, Doppler frequency, and time of flight of ionospherically reflected high‐frequency radio pulses. The technique has been implemented for the first time for the Network for TID Exploration project with data streaming from the network of European Digisonde DPS4D observatories. The performance is demonstrated during a period of moderate auroral activity, assessing its consistency with independent measurements such as data from auroral magnetometers and electron density perturbations from Digisondes and Global Navigation Satellite System stations. Given that the different types of measurements used for this assessment were not made at exactly the same time and location, and that there was insufficient coverage in the area between the atmospheric gravity wave sources and the measurement locations, we can only consider our interpretation as plausible and indicative for the reliability of the extracted TID characteristics. In the framework of the new TechTIDE project (European Commission H2020), a retrospective analysis of the Network for TID Exploration results in comparison with those extracted from Global Navigation Satellite System total electron content‐based methodologies is currently being attempted, and the results will be the objective of a follow‐up paper.