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Single station real-time P and S phase pickers for seismic observatories

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Methods and Applications of Signal Processing in Seismic Network Operations

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Earth Sciences ((LNEARTH,volume 98))

Abstract

An automatic phase picker is required for real-time procedures to locate seismic events. We present a successful implementation at the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI) of an accurate P picker, based on a dual autoregressive modeling of the seismogram around the P phase. The method only requires a detection of the P phase, which in our implementation is provided by a simple STA/LTA ratio. In the second part of this chapter we describe a fast algorithm to identify and pick S wave energy. This approach combines classical polarization analysis and the discrete wavelet transform. Polarization analysis of the P wave arrival is used for initial rotation of the raw data into the radial and transverse components. The wavelet decomposition of the radial and transverse components are filtered with an adaptive noise reducing filter to select scales (frequency bands) containing the S wave energy. This step reveals the type of seismic signal: local, regional or teleseismic. To identify and pick the S wave onset a time-varying characteristic function, defining the degree and direction of polarization and the amount of transverse energy, is applied on the selected scales.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI), P.O. Box 201, 3730 AE, De Bilt, Netherlands

    Reinoud Sleeman & Torild van Eck

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  1. Reinoud Sleeman
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  2. Torild van Eck
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Sleeman, R., van Eck, T. (2003). Single station real-time P and S phase pickers for seismic observatories. In: Methods and Applications of Signal Processing in Seismic Network Operations. Lecture Notes in Earth Sciences, vol 98. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/BFb0117702

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BFb0117702

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-43718-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-47914-7

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