The Variation in Microwave Brightness Temperature of Granite Pressed Under Weak Background Radiation

Generally, ground stress accumulates in the process of earthquake (EQ) preparation. The change trend of microwave brightness temperature (TB) of rock with stress change is an important factor for the understanding of the microwave anomalies associated with EQs. However, it is not yet clear whether the downtrend of rocks' TB is associated with increased stress. To confirm this, in this article, the instantaneous field of view of the microwave radiometer was identified first. Then, the microwave observation experiments were conducted on granite samples at 6.6 GHz under cyclic loading and outdoor conditions with weak background radiation. It was found that besides uptrend and fluctuation, the downtrend of granite samples' TB also correlates with stress, with an occurrence probability of 47.62% and a maximum rate of -0.038 K/MPa. The variation trends of TB with stress are not uniform across different areas of the same sample. To reveal the cause of this phenomenon, the permittivity of single-crystal quartz, one of the main mineral compositions of granite, was measured when it was under compassion loading at the direction perpendicular or parallel to the optical axis. For quartz, the real part of the permittivity rises (falls) when the two directions are perpendicular (parallel), causing the TB to fall (rise). The optic axes of minerals are randomly distributed in granite samples, which make the variation in the permittivity of minerals also random, thereby resulting in the nonuniformity of stress-induced TB variation in granite samples. Finally, the implications of these results were discussed.