The results of the study of ionospheric variations in the summer months of 1998-2002 at an ionospheric station of vertical sounding "Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky" are presented. Anomalous variations of virtual sporadic-E height (h'Es), Es blanketing frequency (fbEs), and the critical frequency of the ionospheric F2 layer (foF2) (which can be attributed to the possible earthquake precursors) are selected. The high efficiency of the selection of ionospheric earthquake precursors based on the several parameters of Es and F2 layers is shown. The empirical dependence, which reflects the connection between the lead-time of the earthquake moment, the distance to the epicenter from the observation point, and the magnitude of the earthquake are obtained. This empirical dependence is consistent with the results of the detection of earthquake precursors by measuring the physical parameters of the Earth's crust in the same region.

1. INTRODUCTION
 2. RESEARCH METHOD
 3. RESULTS OF ANALYSIS
 4. CRITERIA FOR EFFECTIVENESS OF METHODSFOR IDENTIFYING IONOSPHERIC EARTHQUAKEPRECURSORS
 5. SUMMARY
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
 REFERENCES

• Lidiya P. Korsunova(Pushkov Institute of Terrestrial Magnetism, Ionosphere, and Radiowave Propagation, Russian Academy of Sciences)
• Valery V. Hegai(Pushkov Institute of Terrestrial Magnetism, Ionosphere, and Radiowave Propagation, Russian Academy of Sciences) Corresponding Author