The Value of Distributed Acoustic Sensing for Earthquake Early Warning in Southern California
Description:
Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS) instruments, deployed on existing telecommunications fiber optic cables, have emerged as a powerful tool for seismological studies. Their ability to transform long stretches of fiber into dense seismic arrays offers significant observational advantages over traditional seismic stations. Despite substantial advancements in utilizing DAS data for earthquake research, challenges remain in continuous earthquake monitoring and integrating real-time DAS data streams into earthquake early warning (EEW) algorithms.
The extensive fiber-optic infrastructure in Southern California presents a promising opportunity to enhance current EEW capabilities. Offshore cables landing in Los Angeles, in particular, provide an ideal testbed to explore the transformative potential of DAS for EEW. Using simulated waveforms from a hypothetical M7.05 event along a known offshore fault, we evaluate EEW performance through two tests: one using data exclusively from ShakeAlert stations and another combining station data with simulated DAS data from an existing offshore cable connecting Los Angeles to San Diego.
Our results indicate that incorporating offshore DAS observations into the finite-fault EEW FinDer algorithm could increase warning time and improve magnitude estimation accuracy compared to station-only data. We also highlight critical steps for integrating DAS into operational EEW networks, such as assessing the impact of phase clipping on DAS signals and developing real-time methods to convert strain-rate measurements into along-cable ground accelerations.
These findings underscore the significant potential of DAS to improve EEW systems, particularly in offshore regions where traditional seismic networks are sparse or absent. They also demonstrate how current DAS-specific challenges can be addressed to unlock its full utility in real-time seismic monitoring and early warning applications.
Session: Performance and Progress of Earthquake Early Warning Systems Around the World [Poster]
Type: Poster
Date: 4/16/2025
Presentation Time: 08:00 AM (local time)
Presenting Author: Jessie
Student Presenter: No
Invited Presentation:
Poster Number: 123
Authors
Ettore Biondi Corresponding Author ettore88@alumni.stanford.edu California Institute of Technology |
Jessie Saunders Presenting Author jsaunder@caltech.edu California Institute of Technology |
Gabrielle Tepp gtepp@caltech.edu California Institute of Technology |
Ellen Yu eyu@caltech.edu California Institute of Technology |
Eliseo Banda ebanda@caltech.edu California Institute of Technology |
Zhongwen Zhan zwzhan@caltech.edu California Institute of Technology |
Allen Husker ahusker@caltech.edu California Institute of Technology |
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The Value of Distributed Acoustic Sensing for Earthquake Early Warning in Southern California
Category
Performance and Progress of Earthquake Early Warning Systems Around the World