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Performance of Operational Earthquake Early Warning Across Central America.

Description: 

Over the past year, operational public Earthquake Early Warning (EEW) alerts have become available across Central America via cell phone applications. Given the elevated earthquake risks, vulnerable building stock, and rising population density, the adoption of EEW systems in the region has substantial potential to safeguard lives. The "Alerta Temprana de Terremotos en América Central" (ATTAC) project, involving seismological agencies from Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica, along with the Swiss Seismological Service (SED) at ETH Zurich, has concluded after 8 years with the release of public operational national EEW systems. Each of the four participating countries now offers public alerts through a mobile application available on both iOS and Android devices. As of January 2024, the Costa Rican Android application (the first that was released) has tens of thousands of users, providing notifications with less than an additional 4-second delay, 1.5 seconds in median. In Managua, Nicaragua, the Japanese-developed EWBS system is also used for fix-site alerting via digital television (also implemented but not publicly deployed in El Salvador and Costa Rica). Each of the independent national EEW systems utilises high-quality seismic networks and the ETHZ SeisComP EEW (ESE) system with the Virtual Seismologist and FinDer EEW algorithms. First alerts for on-shore seismicity are typically available within 8-15 seconds after origin time, while offshore or deep events are identified within 20-25 seconds. In this submission, we summarize the alert configuration of the systems and review the performance so far, with a focus on key events, including the October 2023 M5.3 earthquake in Central Costa Rica, one of the first key tests of the system. We also reflect on fluctuating usage numbers and early feedback on the system so far.

Session: End-to-End Advancements in Earthquake Early Warning Systems - II

Type: Oral

Date: 5/3/2024

Presentation Time: 05:30 PM (local time)

Presenting Author: Frederick

Student Presenter: No

Invited Presentation: 

Authors