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Two High-Sensitivity Laser Strainmeters Installed in the Canfranc Underground Laboratory (Spain): Instrument Features from 100 to 0.001 mHz

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Abstract

Two laser strainmeters are being operated in the Canfranc Underground Laboratory (LSC, Central Pyrenees, Spain) at about 350 m depth. One of the two laser strainmeters (GAL16, striking 76o) is located about 670 m from the Spanish entrance of a decommissioned train tunnel, along the side wall of one of the bypasses connecting a recent highway tunnel to the train tunnel. The other strainmeter (LAB780, striking −32o) is located about 780 m from the Spanish entrance of the train tunnel, inside two narrow side halls parallel to and built at the same time as the train tunnel. Their mechanical and optical setups derive from a previous installation at Gran Sasso, Italy, with some changes and improvements. Here we show the main instrument features in the frequency range of 100–0.001 mHz. At frequencies lower than 4 mHz, strain noise compares well with the best laser strainmeters made till now, while at higher frequencies strain noise is higher than at Kamioka, Japan, probably because of frequency instabilities of the laser source. Environmental (air temperature and pressure) effects on measured strain are quite small; thus, signal-to-noise ratio in the tidal bands is unusually high. In particular, diurnal Ψ 1 and Φ 1 tides clearly emerge from noise even using a 2-year-long strain record, giving the opportunity to improve previous determinations of the Free Core Nutation parameters from strain data as soon as more data are acquired. The features of the LSC strainmeters allow investigating the Earth in a very broad frequency range, with a signal-to-noise ratio as good as or better than that of the best laser strainmeters in the world.

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Acknowledgments

We are grateful to Verdiana Botta for her help in the early stage of the LSC strainmeter installation and data processing. This is a contribution of the Geodyn project (MICINN ICTS2009-33). Figures were produced using the Grace plotting tool (http://plasma-gate.weizmann.ac.il/Grace/) and the Inkscape vector graphics editor (https://inkscape.org/).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemistry and Biology, University of Salerno, Fisciano, Italy

    Antonella Amoruso

  2. Laboratorio Subterraneo de Canfranc, Huesca, Spain

    Antonella Amoruso, Luca Crescentini, Alberto Bayo & Sergio Fernández Royo

  3. Department of Physics, University of Salerno, Fisciano, Italy

    Luca Crescentini & Annamaria Luongo

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  1. Antonella Amoruso
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  2. Luca Crescentini
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Correspondence to Antonella Amoruso.

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Amoruso, A., Crescentini, L., Bayo, A. et al. Two High-Sensitivity Laser Strainmeters Installed in the Canfranc Underground Laboratory (Spain): Instrument Features from 100 to 0.001 mHz. Pure Appl. Geophys. 175, 1727–1737 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00024-017-1553-7

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