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Seismic Noise

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  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Earthquake Engineering
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Synonyms

Ambient noise; Cultural noise; Digitization noise; Instrumental noise; Man-made noise; Microseismic noise; Microseisms; Self-noise; Signal-generated noise

Introduction

Seismic signals are usually transient waveforms radiated from a localized natural or man-made seismic source. They can be used to locate the source, to analyze source processes, and to study the structure of the medium of wave propagation. In contrast, the term “seismic noise” designates undesired components of ground motion that do not fit in our conceptual model of the signal under investigation. What we identify and treat as noise in seismic studies depends on the available data, on the aim of our study, and on the method of analysis. Accordingly, data treated as noise in one context may be considered as useful signals in other applications. For example, short-period noise (frequency >0.2 Hz) can be used for investigating the potential amplification of earthquake-generated ground motions due to local...

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Bormann, P. (2015). Seismic Noise. In: Beer, M., Kougioumtzoglou, I.A., Patelli, E., Au, SK. (eds) Encyclopedia of Earthquake Engineering. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-35344-4_289

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