Using surface waves recorded by a large mesh of three-element arrays to detect and locate disparate seismic sources

Author Posting. © The Authors, 2018. This article is posted here by permission of The Royal Astronomical Society for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Geophysical Journal International 215 (2018): 942–958, doi:10.1093/gji/ggy316.Surface waves recorded by global arrays have proven useful for locating tectonic earthquakes and in detecting slip events depleted in high frequency, such as glacial quakes. We develop a novel method using an aggregation of small- to continental-scale arrays to detect and locate seismic sources with Rayleigh waves at 20–50 s period. The proposed method is a hybrid approach including first dividing a large aperture aggregate array into Delaunay triangular subarrays for beamforming, and then using the resolved surface wave propagation directions and arrival times from the subarrays as data to formulate an inverse problem to locate the seismic sources and their origin times. The approach harnesses surface wave coherence and maximizes resolution of detections by combining measurements from stations spanning the whole U.S. continent. We tested the method with earthquakes, glacial quakes and landslides. The results show that the method can effectively resolve earthquakes as small as ∼M3 and exotic slip events in Greenland. We find that the resolution of the locations is non-uniform with respect to azimuth, and decays with increasing distance between the source and the array when no calibration events are available. The approach has a few advantages: the method is insensitive to seismic event type, it does not require a velocity model to locate seismic sources, and it is computationally efficient. The method can be adapted to real-time applications and can help in identifying new classes of seismic sources.WF is currently supported by the Postdoctoral Scholar Program at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, with funding provided by the Weston Howland Jr. Postdoctoral Scholarship. This work was supported by National Science Foundation grant EAR-1358520 at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego

Relationships between gravity waves observed at Earth's surface and in the stratosphere over the central and eastern United States

Observations of tropospheric gravity waves (GWs) made by the new and extensive USArray Transportable Array (TA) barometric network located east of the Rockies, in the central and eastern United States and of stratospheric (30–40 km above sea level) GWs made by the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) are compared over a 5 year time span from 2010 through 2014. GW detections in the period band from 2 to 6 h made at the Earth's surface during the thunderstorm season from May through August each year exhibit the same broad spatial and temporal patterns as observed at stratospheric altitudes. At both levels, the occurrence frequency of GWs is higher at night than during the day and is highest to the west of the Great Lakes. Statistically significant correlations between the variance of the pressure at the TA, which is a proxy for GWs at ground level, with 8.1 μm brightness temperature measurements from AIRS and rain radar precipitation data, which are both proxies for convective activity, indicate that GWs observed at the TA are related to convective sources. There is little, if any, time lag between the two. Correlations between GWs in the stratosphere and at ground level are weaker, possibly due to the AIRS observational filter effect, but are still statistically significant at nighttime. We conclude that convective activity to the west of the Great Lakes is the dominant source of GWs both at ground level and within the stratosphere

EON-ROSE and the Canadian Cordillera Array – Building Bridges to Span Earth System Science in Canada

EON-ROSE (Earth-System Observing Network - Réseau d’Observation du Système terrestrE) is a new initiative for a pan-Canadian research collaboration to holistically examine Earth systems from the ionosphere into the core. The Canadian Cordillera Array (CC Array) is the pilot phase, and will extend across the Cordillera from the Beaufort Sea to the U.S. border. The vision for EON-ROSE is to install a network of telemetered observatories to monitor solid Earth, environmental and atmospheric processes. EON-ROSE is an inclusive, combined effort of Canadian universities, federal, provincial and territorial government agencies, industry, and international collaborators. Brainstorming sessions and several workshops have been held since May 2016. The first station will be installed at Kluane Lake Research Station in southwestern Yukon during the summer of 2018. The purpose of this report is to provide a framework for continued discussion and development.RÉSUMÉEON-ROSE (Earth-System Observing Network - Réseau d’Observation du Système terrestrE) est une nouvelle initiative de collaboration de recherche pancanadienne visant à étudier de manière holistique les systèmes terrestres, depuis l’ionosphère jusqu’au noyau. Le Réseau canadien de la cordillère (CC Array) en est la phase pilote, laquelle couvrira toute la Cordillère, de la mer de Beaufort jusqu’à la frontière étasunienne. L’objectif d’EON-ROSE est d’installer un réseau d’observatoires télémétriques pour suivre en continu les processusterrestres, environnementaux et atmosphériques. EON-ROSE est un effort combiné et inclusif des universités canadiennes, des organismes gouvernementaux fédéraux, provinciaux et territoriaux, de l’industrie et de collaborateurs internationaux. Des séances de remue-méninges et plusieurs ateliers ont été tenus depuis mai 2016. La première station sera installée à la station de recherche du lac Kluane, dans le sud-ouest du Yukon, au cours de l’été 2018. Le but du présent rapport est de fournir un cadre de discussion et de développement continu

A case study on the far-field properties of propagating tropospheric gravity waves

Mesoscale gravity waves were observed by barometers deployed as part of the USArray Transportable Array on June 29, 2011 near two mesoscale convective systems in the Great Plains region of the US. Simultaneously, AIRS satellite data indicated stratospheric gravity waves propagating away from the location of active convection. Peak perturbation pressure values associated with waves propagating outside of regions where there was precipitation reached amplitudes close to 400 Pa at the surface. Here we investigate the origins of the waves and their relationship to observed precipitation with a specialized model study. Simulations with a 4-km resolution dry numerical model reproduce the propagation characteristics and amplitudes of the observed waves with a high degree of quantitative similarity despite the absence of any boundary layer processes, surface topography, or moist physics in the model. The model is forced with a three-dimensional, time-dependent latent heating/cooling field that mimics the latent heating inside the precipitation systems. The heating is derived from the network of weather radar precipitation observations. This shows that deep, intense latent heat release within the precipitation systems is the key forcing mechanism for the waves observed at ground level by the USArray. Furthermore, the model simulations allow for a more detailed investigation of the vertical structure and propagation characteristics of the waves. It is found that the stratospheric and tropospheric waves are triggered by the same sources, but have different spectral properties. Results also suggest that the propagating tropospheric waves may potentially remotely interact with and enhance active precipitation

Stormquakes

Author Posting. © American Geophysical Union, 2019. This article is posted here by permission of American Geophysical Union for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Geophysical Research Letters 46 (2019): 12909-12918, doi: 10.1029/2019GL084217.Seismic signals from ocean‐solid Earth interactions are ubiquitously recorded on our planet. However, these wavefields are typically incoherent in the time domain limiting their utilization for understanding ocean dynamics or solid Earth properties. In contrast, we find that during large storms such as hurricanes and Nor'easters the interaction of long‐period ocean waves with shallow seafloor features located near the edge of continental shelves, known as ocean banks, excites coherent transcontinental Rayleigh wave packets in the 20‐ to 50‐s period band. These “stormquakes” migrate coincident with the storms but are effectively spatiotemporally focused seismic point sources with equivalent earthquake magnitudes that can be greater than 3.5. Stormquakes thus provide new coherent sources to investigate Earth structure in locations that typically lack both seismic instrumentation and earthquakes. Moreover, they provide a new geophysical observable with high spatial and temporal resolution with which to investigate ocean wave dynamics during large storms.We would like to thank the Editor Dr. Hayes, Dr. Ekström, Dr. McNamara, Dr. Pollitz, and the other two reviewers for their constructive suggestions, which have led to improvements in our paper. We would also like to thank Dr. Ardhuin and Dr. Gualtieri for helpful discussions, and specifically Dr. Ardhuin for sharing codes to model ocean wave and seafloor topography interference (Ardhuin et al., 2015). The seismic data were provided by Data Management Center (DMC) of the Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology (IRIS). The facilities of IRIS Data Services, and specifically the IRIS Data Management Center, were used for access to waveforms, related metadata, and/or derived products used in this study. IRIS Data Services are funded through the Seismological Facilities for the Advancement of Geoscience and EarthScope (SAGE) Proposal of the National Science Foundation under Cooperative Agreement EAR‐1261681. The earthquake catalogs were downloaded from the Global Centroid Moment Tensor GCMT project (Ekström et al., 2012), and the International Seismological Centre (ISC) (International Seismological Centre, 2013). The ocean wave models are obtained from the Environmental Modeling Center at the National Weather Service (NWS) of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA; Tolman, 2014). The hurricane tracks are obtained from the National Hurricane Center (NHC) of NOAA (Landsea & Franklin, 2013). The topography is obtained from the ETOPO1 Arc‐Minute Global Relief Model provided by the National Geophysical Data Center (NGDC) of NOAA. Toponymic information, including undersea features, are obtained from the GEONet Names Server (GNS), which is based on the Geographic Names Database, containing official standard names approved by the U.S. Board on Geographic Names and maintained by the National Geospatial‐Intelligence Agency (www.nga.mil, last accessed 21 March 2019). The Bahamas Banks geographic polygons are obtained from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) database of names. The AELUMA code can be obtained on request through the IRIS data service product website at https://ds.iris.edu/ds/products/infrasound-aeluma/request(last accessed 21 March 2019). W. F. acknowledges support from the Postdoctoral Scholar Program at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, with funding provided by the Weston Howland Jr. Postdoctoral Scholarship. C. D. G and M. A. H. H acknowledge support from NSF Grant EAR‐1358520. The processed data are available from the authors upon request.2020-04-1

The source of infrasound associated with long-period events at mount St. Helens

During the early stages of the 2004-2008 Mount St. Helens eruption, the source process that produced a sustained sequence of repetitive long-period (LP) seismic events also produced impulsive broadband infrasonic signals in the atmosphere. To assess whether the signals could be generated simply by seismic-acoustic coupling from the shallow LP events, we perform finite difference simulation of the seismo-acoustic wavefield using a single numerical scheme for the elastic ground and atmosphere. The effects of topography, velocity structure, wind, and source configuration are considered. The simulations show that a shallow source buried in a homogeneous elastic solid produces a complex wave train in the atmosphere consisting of P/SV and Rayleigh wave energy converted locally along the propagation path, and acoustic energy originating from , the source epicenter. Although the horizontal acoustic velocity of the latter is consistent with our data, the modeled amplitude ratios of pressure to vertical seismic velocity are too low in comparison with observations, and the characteristic differences in seismic and acoustic waveforms and spectra cannot be reproduced from a common point source. The observations therefore require a more complex source process in which the infrasonic signals are a record of only the broadband pressure excitation mechanism of the seismic LP events. The observations and numerical results can be explained by a model involving the repeated rapid pressure loss from a hydrothermal crack by venting into a shallow layer of loosely consolidated, highly permeable material. Heating by magmatic activity causes pressure to rise, periodically reaching the pressure threshold for rupture of the valve sealing the crack. Sudden opening of the valve generates the broadband infrasonic signal and simultaneously triggers the collapse of the crack, initiating resonance of the remaining fluid. Subtle waveform and amplitude variability of the infrasonic signals as recorded at an array 13.4 km to the NW of the volcano are attributed primarily to atmospheric boundary layer propagation effects, superimposed upon amplitude changes at the source. Copyright 2009 by the American Geophysical Union