Methods for Amplitude Calibration and Orientation Discrepancy Measurement: Comparing Co‐Located Sensors of Different Types in the Southern California Seismic Network

2019 ◽  
Vol 109 (4) ◽  
pp. 1563-1570 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zefeng Li ◽  
Egill Hauksson ◽  
Jennifer Andrews
Keyword(s):  
Southern California ◽  
Dynamic Range ◽  
Strong Motion ◽  
Seismic Network ◽  
Motion Sensors ◽  
Vertical Orientation ◽  
Horizontal Orientation ◽  
California Institute Of Technology ◽  
Short Period ◽  
Institute Of Technology

Abstract Modern seismic networks commonly equip a station with multiple sensors, to extend the frequency band and the dynamic range of data recorded at the station. In addition, in our recent study we showed that comparison of data from co‐located seismometers and accelerometers is useful for detecting instrument malfunctions and monitoring data quality. In this study, we extend comparison of data from different co‐located sensors to two other applications: (1) amplitude calibration for data from vertical short‐period sensors with strong‐motion sensors as baseline and (2) measurement of orientation discrepancy between strong‐motion and broadband sensors. We perform systematic analyses of data recorded by the California Institute of Technology/U.S. Geological Survey Southern California Seismic Network. In the first application, we compare the amplitude of data from vertical short‐period sensors to that of data from co‐located strong‐motion sensors and measure the amplitude calibration factors for 93 short‐period sensors. Among them, 49 stations are measured at ∼1.0, 42 measured at ∼0.6, as well as two outlying stations: GFF at 0.3 and CHI at 1.3. These values are found to be related to the sensors’ sensitivity values. In the second application, we measure orientation discrepancy between 222 co‐located broadband and strong‐motion sensors. All the vertical orientation differences are found to be within 5°. However, the horizontal orientation differences of 22 stations are greater than 6°, among which four stations have reverse rotation or 180° from the expected orientation. These measurements have been communicated to network operators and fixes are being applied. This study, together with our previously developed data monitoring framework, demonstrates that comparison of different co‐located sensors is a simple and effective tool for a broad range of seismic data assessment and instrument calibration.

A Rapid Response Network to Record Aftershocks of the 2015 M 7.8 Gorkha Earthquake in Nepal

2020 ◽  
Vol 91 (4) ◽  
pp. 2399-2408
Author(s):  
Marianne S. Karplus ◽  
Mohan Pant ◽  
Soma Nath Sapkota ◽  
John Nábělek ◽  
Aaron A. Velasco ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Plate Boundary ◽  
Strong Motion ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Rapid Response ◽  
Earthquake Risk ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Motion Sensors ◽  
Gorkha Earthquake ◽  
2015 Gorkha Earthquake ◽  
Short Period

Abstract The Himalaya has experienced large damaging earthquakes over the past few centuries, most recently the damaging 25 April 2015 M 7.8 Gorkha earthquake in Nepal. Because of the continued earthquake risk presented by the continental collisional plate boundary at the Main Himalayan thrust and the high population densities in the region, collecting and processing data related to recent large earthquakes in this region is critically important for improving our understanding of the regional tectonics and earthquake hazard. Following the 2015 Gorkha earthquake, we deployed a National Science Foundation-funded rapid-response aftershock network known as the Nepal Array Measuring Aftershock Seismicity Trailing Earthquake network across the rupture area for 11 months beginning 7 weeks after the mainshock. The network consisted of 41 broadband and short-period seismometers, and 14 strong-motion sensors at 46 sites across eastern and central Nepal. The network spanned a region approximately 210 km along strike by 110 km across strike with a station spacing of 20–25 km. In this article, we report lessons learned from this deployment as well as details of the publicly accessible dataset including data recovery, data quality, and potential for future research.

scholarly journals CO2 Transport, Variability, and Budget over the Southern California Air Basin Using the High-Resolution WRF-VPRM Model during the CalNex 2010 Campaign

2018 ◽  
Vol 57 (6) ◽  
pp. 1337-1352 ◽  
Author(s):  
Changhyoun Park ◽  
Christoph Gerbig ◽  
Sally Newman ◽  
Ravan Ahmadov ◽  
Sha Feng ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Los Angeles ◽  
Southern California ◽  
Regional Scale ◽  
Wrf Model ◽  
Net Ecosystem Exchange ◽  
Weather Research And Forecasting ◽  
California Institute Of Technology ◽  
Vegetation Class ◽  
Institute Of Technology ◽  
Photosynthesis And Respiration

AbstractTo study regional-scale carbon dioxide (CO2) transport, temporal variability, and budget over the Southern California Air Basin (SoCAB) during the California Research at the Nexus of Air Quality and Climate Change (CalNex) 2010 campaign period, a model that couples the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) Model with the Vegetation Photosynthesis and Respiration Model (VPRM) has been used. Our numerical simulations use anthropogenic CO2 emissions of the Hestia Project 2010 fossil-fuel CO2 emissions data products along with optimized VPRM parameters at “FLUXNET” sites, for biospheric CO2 fluxes over SoCAB. The simulated meteorological conditions have been validated with ground and aircraft observations, as well as with background CO2 concentrations from the coastal Palos Verdes site. The model captures the temporal pattern of CO2 concentrations at the ground site at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, but it overestimates the magnitude in early daytime. Analysis of CO2 by wind directions reveals the overestimate is due to advection from the south and southwest, where downtown Los Angeles is located. The model also captures the vertical profile of CO2 concentrations along with the flight tracks. The optimized VPRM parameters have significantly improved simulated net ecosystem exchange at each vegetation-class site and thus the regional CO2 budget. The total biospheric contribution ranges approximately from −24% to −20% (daytime) of the total anthropogenic CO2 emissions during the study period.

scholarly journals Updated determination of earthquake magnitudes at the Swiss Seismological Service

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roman Racine ◽  
Carlo Cauzzi ◽  
John Clinton ◽  
Donat Fäh ◽  
Benjamin Edwards ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Seismic Hazard ◽  
Source Region ◽  
Strong Motion ◽  
Velocity Model ◽  
Seismic Network ◽  
Event Processing ◽  
Waveform Data ◽  
Data Archiving ◽  
Short Period ◽  
Magnitude Determination

<p>The Swiss Seismological Service (SED; http://www.seismo.ethz.ch) at ETH Zürich is the federal agency in charge of monitoring earthquakes in Switzerland and neighboring areas, and for the assessment of seismic hazard and risk for the region. The SED seismic network largely relies on software and databases integrated in the SeisComP3 monitoring suite for waveform acquisition, automatic and manual event processing, event alerting, web infrastructure, data archiving and dissemination. Data from all digital seismic stations acquired by the SED over the last 30 years - broadband (presently ~230), strong-motion (~185), short-period (~65), permanent and temporary - are homogeneously integrated in the seismic network processing tools and products. Waveform data from the Swiss National Seismic Networks are openly available through the SED website and ORFEUS EIDA / Strong-Motion (http://orfeus-eu.org/data/) data gateways. The SED earthquake catalogue is publicly available through FDSN Event web services at  the SED (http://arclink.ethz.ch/fdsnws/event/1/). The Swiss seismic hazard maps are integrated in the EFEHR portal (http://www.efehr.org). The SED is updating its strategy for magnitude determination to make it fully consistent with the state-of-the-art in engineering seismology and seismic hazard studies in Switzerland, and to optimise the use of its dense seismic monitoring infrastructure. Among the planned changes are the: (a) adoption of a new ML relationship applicable in the near-source region at epicentral distances smaller than 15-20 km; (b) inclusion of ML station corrections based on empirically observed (de)amplification with respect to the Swiss reference rock velocity model and associated predictions; (c)  seamless computation of Mw based on spectral fitting of recorded FAS using a Swiss specific model. In this contribution we present and discuss the updated magnitude computations for a playback dataset of thousands of recorded earthquakes, and compare them with the current official estimates. We discuss the expected impacts of the new magnitude determination strategy on the SED event processing chain in SeisComP3, the SED catalogues and other seismological products. We welcome community feedback on our planned transition strategy.</p>

A Statistical Method for Associating Earthquakes with Their Source Faults in Southern California

2020 ◽  
Vol 110 (1) ◽  
pp. 213-225
Author(s):  
Walker S. Evans ◽  
Andreas Plesch ◽  
John H. Shaw ◽  
Natesh L. Pillai ◽  
Ellen Yu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Statistical Method ◽  
Real Time ◽  
Southern California ◽  
Processing System ◽  
Historical Earthquakes ◽  
Fault Models ◽  
Current Event ◽  
California Institute Of Technology ◽  
Testing Data ◽  
Institute Of Technology

ABSTRACT We present a new statistical method for associating earthquakes with their source faults in the Southern California Earthquake Center’s 3D Community Fault Models (CFMs; Plesch et al., 2007) in near-real time and for historical earthquakes. The method uses the hypocenter location, focal mechanism orientation, and earthquake sequencing to produce the probabilities of association between a given earthquake and each fault in the CFM as well as the probability that the event occurred on a fault not represented in the CFM. We used a set of known likely associations (the Known Likely Sets) as training or testing data and demonstrated that our models perform effectively on these examples and should be expected to perform well on other earthquakes with similar characteristics including the full catalog of southern California earthquakes (Hauksson et al., 2012). To produce near-real-time associations for future earthquakes, the models have been implemented as an R script and connected to the Southern California Seismic Network data processing system operated by the California Institute of Technology and the U.S. Geological Survey to automatically produce fault associations for earthquakes of M≥3.0 as they occur. To produce historical associations, we apply the method to the most recent CFM version (v.5.2), yielding modeled historical associations for all events of M≥3.0 in the catalog of southern California earthquakes from 1981 to 2016. More than 80% of these events and 99% of moment within the geography covered by the CFM had a primary association with a CFM fault. The models can help identify clusters of small earthquakes that indicate the onset of activity associated with major faults. The method will also assist in communicating objective information about the faults that source earthquakes to the scientific community and general public. In the event of a damaging southern California earthquake, the near-real-time association will provide valuable information regarding the similarity of the current event to forecast scenarios, potentially aiding in earthquake response.

scholarly journals FIRST FINDINGS ON COMETARY ACTIVITY FROM THE PTF COMET SAMPLE

2021 ◽  
Vol 53 ◽  
pp. 140-146
Author(s):  
N. Mouawad ◽  
J. Fraine ◽  
J. Chebly ◽  
J. M. Bauer ◽  
R. Laher ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Intermediate Phase ◽  
Statistical Significance ◽  
California Institute ◽  
New Approach ◽  
Long Period ◽  
California Institute Of Technology ◽  
Short Period ◽  
Uniform Sample ◽  
Institute Of Technology ◽  
Cometary Activity

We present preliminary results from the Palomar Transient Factory (PTF) uniform sample of short period comets (SPCs) and long period comets (LPCs), captured between September 2009 and March 2013. We study their dynamical and physical properties in relation to their activity for a better understanding of cometary evolution. This observing campaign was part of PTF in its intermediate phase (iPTF) at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). The photometric sample comprises more than 180 comets, which makes it one of the largest samples studied to-date. We present a new approach to identifying active comets that compares subtracted aperture magnitudes of comets with the distribution of stars of similar brightness in each image. In this paper, we present initial findings on cometary activity in relationship to their perihelion distances. We show differences between the distributions of the SPCs and that of the LPCs. As others predicted, it seems that a larger fraction of LPCs are found to be active at larger perihelia than for the SPCs. We look at ratios of active comets in different perihelia brackets and compare those to previous works and results. We do not discuss the statistical significance of our findings as this is still work in progress.

Monitoring Data Quality by Comparing Co‐located Broadband and Strong‐Motion Waveforms in Southern California Seismic Network

2019 ◽  
Vol 90 (2A) ◽  
pp. 699-707 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zefeng Li ◽  
Egill Hauksson ◽  
Tom Heaton ◽  
Luis Rivera ◽  
Jennifer Andrews
Keyword(s):  
Data Quality ◽  
Southern California ◽  
Strong Motion ◽  
Seismic Network ◽  
Monitoring Data

Science and Military Influences on the Ascent of Aerospace Development in Southern California

2014 ◽  
Vol 96 (4) ◽  
pp. 373-404
Author(s):  
Hunter Hollins
Keyword(s):  
Scientific Inquiry ◽  
Driving Force ◽  
Southern California ◽  
California Institute ◽  
Early Date ◽  
Jet Propulsion ◽  
Military Application ◽  
California Institute Of Technology ◽  
Jet Propulsion Laboratory ◽  
Institute Of Technology

While spectator interest got aircraft off the ground, scientific inquiry initially fueled advances in design. But from a very early date, military application was a driving force. The histories of aircraft, the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), and Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) bring to light the relative roles of science and military in the development of aerospace in Southern California.

Automated mineral analysis in TASK8

1990 ◽  
Vol 48 (2) ◽  
pp. 212-213
Author(s):  
William F. Chambers ◽  
Arthur A. Chodos ◽  
Roland C. Hagan
Keyword(s):  
National Laboratory ◽  
Control Program ◽  
Mineral Analysis ◽  
Alamos National Laboratory ◽  
Mineral Phase ◽  
Los Alamos National Laboratory ◽  
California Institute Of Technology ◽  
Mineral Phases ◽  
Letter Code ◽  
Institute Of Technology

TASK8 was designed as an electron microprobe control program with maximum flexibility and versatility, lending itself to a wide variety of applications. While using TASKS in the microprobe laboratory of the Los Alamos National Laboratory, we decided to incorporate the capability of using subroutines which perform specific end-member calculations for nearly any type of mineral phase that might be analyzed in the laboratory. This procedure minimizes the need for post-processing of the data to perform such calculations as element ratios or end-member or formula proportions. It also allows real time assessment of each data point.The use of unique “mineral codes” to specify the list of elements to be measured and the type of calculation to perform on the results was first used in the microprobe laboratory at the California Institute of Technology to optimize the analysis of mineral phases. This approach was used to create a series of subroutines in TASK8 which are called by a three letter code.

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