Detection of Seismic Signals using Seismometers and Strainmeters

Andrew J. Barbour, & Duncan C. Agnew

Published December 2012, SCEC Contribution #1530

Using data from borehole and long‐base strainmeters and from borehole and surface seismometers, we compare the seismic‐wave detection capability of strainmeters and seismometers. We use noise spectra to determine the relative signal‐to‐noise ratios (SNRs) on different sensors, as a function of the phase velocity and frequency of a signal. For the instruments we analyze, signals with frequencies from $10^{-3}$ to 10 Hz and phase velocities typical of (or higher than) surface and body waves will have lower SNRs on the strainmeters than on broadband seismometers. At frequencies from 0.1 to 10 Hz the borehole (short‐period) seismometers have better SNRs than strainmeters for typical phase velocities; at lower frequencies strainmeter data signals would have higher SNRs.

Citation
Barbour, A. J., & Agnew, D. C. (2012). Detection of Seismic Signals using Seismometers and Strainmeters. Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, 102(6), 2484-2490. doi: 10.1785/0120110298.