The influences of large earthquake signals on the recovery of surface waves from ambient noise cross-correlation functions

Ambient noise tomography(ANT)has been widely used to image crust and upmost mantle structures.ANT assumes that sources of ambient noise are diffuse and evenly distributed in space and the energy of different modes is equipartitioned.At present,the sources of the primary and the secondary microseisms are well studied,but there are only a few on the studies of long-period ambient noise sources.In this study,we study the effects of large earthquake signals on the recovery of surface waves from seismic ambient noise data recorded by seismic stations from the US permanent networks and Global Seismographic Network(GSN).Our results show that large earthquake signals play an important role on the recovery of long-period surface waves from ambient noise cross-correlation functions.Our results are consistent with previous studies that suggest the contribution of earthquake signals to the recovery of surface waves from cross-correlations of ambient noise is dominant at periods larger than 20–40 s.

Composition of high frequency ambient noise from cross-correlation:A case study using a small aperture array

Long-time cross correlation of ambient noise has been proved as a powerful tool to extract Green＇s function between two receivers. The study of composition of ambient noise is important for a better understanding of this method. Previous studies confirm that ambient noise in the long period （3 s and longer） mostly consists of surface wave, and 0.25-2.5 s noise consists more of body waves. In this paper, we perform cross correlation processing at much higher frequency （30-70 Hz） using ambient noise recorded by a small aperture array. No surface waves emerge from noise correlation function （NCF）, but weak P waves emerge. The absence of surface wave in NCF is not due to high attenuation since surface waves are strong from active source, therefore probably the high ambient noise mostly consists of body wave and lacks surface wave. Origin of such high frequency body waves in ambient noise remains to be studied.

Time correction of the ocean bottom seismometers deployed at the southwest Indian ridge using ambient noise cross-correlation

Seismic monitoring using ocean bottom seismometers（OBS） is an efficient method for investigating earthquakes in mid-ocean ridge far away from land. Clock synchronization among the OBSs is difficult without direct communication because electromagnetic signals cannot propagate efficiently in water. Time correction can be estimated through global positioning system（GPS） synchronization if clock drift is linear before and after the deployment. However, some OBSs in the experiments at the southwest Indian ridge（SWIR） on the Chinese DY125-34 cruise had not been re-synchronized from GPS after recovery. So we attempted to estimate clock drift between each station pairs using time symmetry analysis（TSA） based on ambient noise cross-correlation. We tested the feasibility of the TSA method by analyzing daily noise cross-correlation functions（NCFs） that extract from the data of another OBS experiment on the Chinese DY125-40 cruise with known clock drift and the same deployment site. The results suggest that the NCFs＇ travel time of surface wave between any two stations are symmetrical and have an opposite growing direction with the date. The influence of different band-pass filters,different components and different normalized methods was discussed. The TSA method appeared to be optimal for the hydrophone data within the period band of 2–5 s in dozens of km-scale interstation distances. A significant clock drift of ~2 s was estimated between OBSs sets through linear regression during a 108-d deployment on the Chinese cruise DY125-34. Time correction of the OBS by the ambient noise cross-correlation was demonstrated as a practical approach with the appropriate parameters in case of no GPS re-synchronization.

Fast estimation of distance between two hydrophones using ocean ambient noise in multi-ship scenarios

Accurately estimating the bearing of a target with two hydrophones requires knowing the precise distance between them.However,in practice,it is difficult to measure this distance accurately due to the influence of current.To solve this problem,we propose a method for extracting the time-domain Green's function between two points in multi-ship scenarios and for extracting the time-domain waveform arrival structure between two hydrophones in real-time based on long samples of ship radiation noise cross-correlation.Using the cross-correlation function of the radiated noise from any ship located in the end-fire direction of the two hydrophones,we can estimate the distance between the hydrophones in real-time.To verify the accuracy of our estimation,we compare the result of azimuth estimation with the actual azimuth based on the azimuth estimation of a cooperative sound source in the maritime environment.Our experimental results show that the proposed method correctly estimates the distance between two hydrophones that cannot be directly measured and estimates the position of a cooperative sound source 4 km away with an average deviation of less than 1.2°.

Public cloud computing for seismological research:Calculating large-scale noise cross-correlations using ALIYUN

The amount of seismological data is rapidly increasing with accumulating observational time and increasing number of stations, requiring modern technique to provide adequate computing power. In present study, we proposed a framework to calculate large-scale noise crosscorrelation functions(NCFs) using public cloud service from ALIYUN. The entire computation is factorized into small pieces which are performed parallelly on specified number of virtual servers provided by the cloud. Using data from most seismic stations in China, five NCF databases are built. The results show that, comparing to the time cost using a single server, the entire time can be reduced over two orders of magnitude depending number of evoked virtual servers. This could reduce computation time from months to less than 12 hours. Based on obtained massive NCFs, the global body waves are retrieved through array interferometry and agree well with those from earthquakes. This leads to a solution to process massive seismic dataset within an affordable time and is applicable to other large-scale computing in seismological researches.

Ambient Noise Tomography, Green’s Function and Earthquakes

Green’s function is well-known, among others, in the application of ambient noise tomography methodologies that may demonstrate the potential of hydrocarbon entrapment in the study area. Here it is also shown to be of key importance in identifying the fractal dimension in the unified scaling law for earthquakes as well as in studying an explicit relationship of a future strong earthquake epicenter to the average earthquake potential score. Such studies are now in progress.

Comparison of ground truth location of earthquake from InSAR and from ambient seismic noise: A case study of the 1998 Zhangbei earthquake

Because ambient seismic noise provides estimated Green’s function （EGF） between two sites with high accuracy, Rayleigh wave propagation along the path connecting the two sites is well resolved. Therefore, earthquakes which are close to one seismic station can be well located with calibration extracting from EGF. We test two algorithms in locating the 1998 Zhangbei earthquake, one algorithm is waveform-based, and the other is traveltime-based. We first compute EGF between station ZHB （a station about 40 km away from the epicenter） and five IC/IRIS stations. With the waveform-based approach, we calculate 1D synthetic single-force Green’s functions between ZHB and other four stations, and obtain traveltime corrections by correlating synthetic Green’s functions with EGFs in period band of 10–30 s. Then we locate the earthquake by minimizing the differential travel times between observed earthquake waveform and the 1D synthetic earthquake waveforms computed with focal mechanism provided by Global CMT after traveltime correction from EGFs. This waveform-based approach yields a location which error is about 13 km away from the location observed with InSAR. With the traveltime-based approach, we begin with measuring group velocity from EGFs as well as group arrival time on observed earthquake waveforms, and then locate the earthquake by minimizing the difference between observed group arrival time and arrival time measured on EGFs. This traveltime-based approach yields accuracy of 3 km, Therefore it is feasible to achieve GT5 （ground truth location with accuracy 5 km） with ambient seismic noises. The less accuracy of the waveform-based approach was mainly caused by uncertainty of focal mechanism.

Stationary phase approximation in the ambient noise method revisited

The method of extracting Green＇s function between stations from cross correlation has proven to be effective theoretically and experimentally. It has been widely applied to surface wave tomography of the crust and upmost mantle. However, there are still controversies about why this method works. Snieder employed stationary phase approximation in evaluating contribution to cross correlation function from scatterers in the whole space, and concluded that it is the constructive interference of waves emitted by the scatterers near the receiver line that leads to the emergence of Green＇s function. His derivation demonstrates that cross correlation function is just the convolution of noise power spectrum and the Green＇s function. However, his derivation ignores influence from the two stationary points at infinities, therefore it may fail when attenuation is absent. In order to obtain accurate noise-correlation function due to scatters over the whole space, we compute the total contribution with numerical integration in polar coordinates. Our numerical computation of cross correlation function indicates that the incomplete stationary phase approximation introduces remarkable errors to the cross correlation function, in both amplitude and phase, when the frequency is low with reasonable quality factor Q. Our results argue that the dis- tance between stations has to be beyond several wavelengths in order to reduce the influence of this inaccuracy on the applications of ambient noise method, and only the station pairs whose distances are above several （〉5） wavelengths can be used.

Ambient noise surface wave tomography of the Makran subduction zone,south-east Iran:Implications for crustal and uppermost mantle structures

Seismic ambient noise of surface wave tomography was applied to estimate Rayleigh wave empirical Green＇s functions （EGFs） and then to study crust and uppermost mantle structure beneath the Makran region in south-east 1mn. 12 months of continuous data from January 2009 through January 2010, recorded at broadband seismic stations, were analyzed. Group velocities of the fundamental mode Rayleigh wave dispersion curves were obtained from the empirical Green＇s functions. Multiple- filter analysis was used to plot group velocity variations at periods from 10 to 50 s. Using group velocity dispersion curves, 1-D Vs velocity models were calculated between several station pairs. The final results demonstrate signifi- cant agreement to known geological and tectonic features. Our tomography maps display low-velocity anomaly with SW-NE trend, comparable with volcanic arc settings of the Makran region which may be attributable to the geometry of Arabian Plate subducting beneath the overriding the Lut block. The northward subducting Arabian Plate is deter- mined by high-velocity anomaly along the Straits of Hor- muz. At short periods （〈20 s）, there is a sharp transition boundary between low- and high-velocity transition zone with the NW trending at the western edge of Makran which is attributable to the Minab fault system.

Fault detection by reflected surface waves based on ambient noise interferometry

Detecting subsurface fault structure is important for evaluating potential earthquake risks associated with active faults.In this study,we propose a new method to detect faults using reflected surface waves observed in ambient noise cross correlation functions.Ambient noise tomography using direct surface waves obtained from ambient noise interferometry has been widely used to characterize active fault zones.In cases where a strong velocity contrast exists across the fault interface,fault-reflected surface waves are expected.We test this idea using a linear array deployed in the Suqian segment of Tanlu fault zone in Eastern China.The fault-reflected surface waves can be clearly seen in the cross-correlation functions of the ambient noise data,and the spatial position of the fault on the surface is close to the stations where the reflected signals first appear.Potentially reflected surface waves could also be used to infer the dip angle,fault zone thickness and the degree of velocity contrast across the fault by comparing synthetic and observed waveforms.

Rayleigh Wave Group Velocity Maps of East Guangdong and Its Surrounding Regions from Ambient Seismic Noise Tomography

We perform Rayleigh wave tomography in east Guangdong and its surrounding regions by applying the ambient noise method to broadband data recorded at 26 stations from Guangdong,Fujian and Jiangxi Digital Seismic Networks.Cross-correlations of verticalcomponent ambient noise data are computed in one-day segments and stacked over seven months from March to September,2011.Then Rayleigh wave group dispersion curves are measured using the frequency-time analysis method.Group velocity maps at periods from5s to 15s are inverted.The resulting group velocity maps generally show good correlation with tectonic features,reflecting the velocity variations in the shallow crust.The basin areas are clearly resolved with lower group velocities at the short periods due to thick sedimentary layers,and the mountain areas with higher group velocities due to thin sedimentary layers.The variations of group velocity on the map can draw out the distribution of basins and mountains in study areas.The geothermal field can change the group velocity obviously,and lower group velocities are always found in high geothermal areas.The velocity maps indicate that a low-velocity layer may be found in the study areas.

Rayleigh waves from correlation of seismic noise in Great Island of Tierra del Fuego,Argentina:Constraints on upper crustal structure

In this study, the ambient seismic noise cross-correlation technique is applied to estimate the upper structure of the crust beneath Great Island of Tierra del Fuego（TdF）, Argentina, by the analysis of shortperiod Rayleigh wave group velocities. The island, situated in the southernmost South America, is a key area of investigation among the interaction between the South American and Scotia plates and is considered as a very seismically active one. Through cross-correlating the vertical components of ambient seismic noise registered at four broadband stations in TdF, we were able to extract Rayleigh waves which were used to estimate group velocities in the period band of 2.5-16 s using a timefrequency analysis. Although ambient noise sources are distributed in homogeneously, robust empirical Green＇s functions could be recovered from the cross-correlation of 12 months of ambient noise, The observed group velocities were inverted considering a non-linear iterative damped least-squares inversion procedure and several 1-D shear wave velocity models of the upper crust were obtained.According to the inversion results, the S-wave velocity ranges between 1.75 and 3,7 km/s in the first10 km of crust, depending on the pair of stations considered. These results are in agreement to the major known surface and sub-surface geological and tectonic features known in the area. This study represents the first ambient seismic noise analysis in TdF in order to constraint the upper crust beneath this region.It can also be considered as a successful feasibility study for future analyses with a denser station deployment for a more detailed imaging of structure.

Body Waves Revealed by Spatial Stacking on Long-Term Cross-Correlation of Ambient Noise

Theoretical and experimental studies indicate that complete Green＇s Function can be retrieved from cross-correlation in a diffuse field. High SNR（signal-to-noise ratio） surface waves have been extracted from cross-correlations of long-duration ambient noise across the globe. Body waves, not extracted in most of ambient noise studies, are thought to be more difficult to retrieve from regular ambient noise data processing. By stacking cross-correlations of ambient noise in 50 km inter-station distance bins in China, western United States and Europe, we observed coherent 20–100 s core phases（Sc S, PKIKPPKIKP, PcP PKPPKP） and crustal-mantle phases（Pn, P, PL, Sn, S, SPL, SnS n, SS, SSPL） at distances ranging from 0 to 4000 km. Our results show that these crustal-mantle phases show diverse characteristics due to different substructure and sources of body waves beneath different regions while the core phases are relatively robust and can be retrieved as long as stations are available. Further analysis indicates that the SNR of these body-wave phases depends on a compromise between stacking fold in spatial domain and the coherence of pre-stacked cross-correlations. Spatially stacked cross-correlations of seismic noise can provide new virtual seismograms for paths that complement earthquake data and that contain valuable information on the structure of the Earth. The extracted crustal-mantle phases can be used to study lithospheric heterogeneities and the robust core phases are significantly useful to study the deep structure of the Earth, such as detecting fine heterogeneities of the core-mantle boundary and constraining differential rotation of the inner core.

Estimated Green's function extracted from superconducting gravimeters and seismometers

Estimated Green’s function （EGF） between stations has been extracted from ambient seismic noise, direct surface wave and coda waves. It is also confirmed by laboratory experiments on ultrasonics and theoretical derivations assuming diffusive wave field, equi-partition of modes or random sources on an enclosed surface. This method provides a new approach to study the crust and mantle structure at regional scale, continental scale and global scale. Following the achievements with seismometer records, the records of infrasonic station, hydrophone and microphone were also used to obtain the EGFs of different wave fields. Since superconducting gravimeter is a better long period instrument than regular seismometer, EGF at longer period is expected to be obtained with the cross correlation of gravity data. In this paper, we will show the EGFs extracted by cross-correlations between the superconducting gravimeters and the seismometers. Both the travel times and dispersion curves obtained from different data types are consistent. The result shows that it is possible to retrieve the deep structure by the cross correlation of gravity data.

沉积层结构被动源探测方法及其在典型盆地的应用

准确的沉积层结构,对盆地地区油气资源调查与勘探、地震动场地效应评估和壳幔深部结构成像等研究均具有重要意义.近二十年来,随着地震观测技术的进步和大量流动台阵数据的积累,利用被动源资料探测沉积层结构的地震学方法研究取得了长足的发展.本文对这些主要方法进行了归纳总结,阐述了基本原理及相关进展.其中,基于远震体波数据的研究方法主要有:接收函数和转换函数、波场反延拓的H-β方法、以及P波质点运动分析等.基于近场体波资料约束沉积层结构通常采用的是高频波形拟合方法.此外,还简要介绍了谱比法、背景噪声面波成像和Rayleigh波Z/H幅度比,以及多种方法的联合反演.最后,对我国东部典型盆地地区,如松辽盆地和华北盆地下方沉积层结构已取得的研究进展进行了总结.

利用接收函数、背景噪声频散和Rayleigh波ZH振幅比联合反演青藏高原东北缘及周边地区地壳结构

本文对在青藏高原东北缘及邻近地区架设的571套宽频带流动地震台站记录到的连续波形数据进行处理,通过联合反演P波接收函数、背景噪声频散和Rayleigh波ZH振幅比,获得了研究区高分辨率三维地壳S波速度(VS)结构.研究结果显示,松潘—甘孜块体和西秦岭造山带以及北祁连造山带下方15~40 km的深度范围内存在很显著的S波低速异常体.其中,松潘—甘孜块体和西秦岭造山带下方的低速异常体很可能与部分熔融有关,且造成部分熔融的原因除了剪切加热外,还有可能是软流圈物质上涌和地壳内部的放射生热.而北祁连造山带的低速异常体则可能由地表隆升和地壳增厚所造成.阿拉善块体内部分布有很多不太显著的低速异常体,这可能与阿拉善块体经历了复杂的构造变形有关.在银川—河套地堑下方20~35 km的深度范围内同样观测到了相对不太显著的低速异常体,这更可能与基性岩浆的底侵作用有关.

台基观测方式对地震台站背景噪声影响分析

重庆地区3个地震台站经改造后,台基类型由深坑观测改变为地表观测。分别计算3个台站改造前后的噪声功率谱密度(PSD)及相应的概率密度函数(PDF),通过噪声功率谱平均噪声曲线,评估3个台站台基背景噪声变化情况。计算结果表明,3个改造台站环境噪声水平有所增加,尤其在2 Hz以上的频段,其中合川云门台(YUM)最大增加9 dB,开县临江台(LIJ)最大增加10 dB,忠县善广台(SHG)最大增加4 dB。目前,3个台站1—20 Hz频带范围内环境噪声水平仍符合观测规范要求,但改变台基观测方式后,传感器接收到人为干扰噪声信号更丰富。因此,开展地震台站建设、改造施工要慎重改变台基观测方式。

Three-Dimensional S-Wave Velocity Structure in Eastern Tibet from Ambient Noise Rayleigh and Love Wave Tomography

We apply ambient noise tomography to continuous three-component broadband seismic data between January 1,2008 and December 31,2008 from the regional networks of 76 stations de-ployed by China Earthquake Administration.Ambient noise cross-correlations were performed to produce the Green＇s functions of each station-pair.Within the period from 6 to 50 s,Rayleigh and Love wave dispersion curves were measured using the multiple filter analysis method.Then three-dimensional（3-D） S-wave velocity structures from the surface down to 70 km are inverted from both Rayleigh and Love wave dispersion results.The obtained S-wave velocity maps show strong lateral variations and correlate well with the distinct geological and tectonic features in the study area.The Sichuan basin displays low velocity in shallow depth due to thick sedimentary deposits but high velocity in the mid-lower crust;the eastern Tibetan plateau is clearly featured with a low-velocity zone in its mid-to-lower crust which is consistent with the crustal flow model proposed to explain the mechanism of uplift and pattern of deformation for the Tibetan plateau.Meanwhile,our results also exhibit that the crustal thickness decreased from the eastern Tibetan plateau to the Sichuan basin.

地震背景噪声成像研究综述

地震背景噪声成像方法已成为21世纪地震学的伟大突破之一,其原理是,对2个台站记录的连续背景噪声信号进行互相关计算,得到台站间的格林函数,利用经验格林函数得到面波速度函数,获取面波频散特性,用地震层析成像方法对面波速度进行反演,得到地球内部的速度结构。其应用近年来日益广泛,涉及各向同性和各向异性的速度结构成像、大地震前后速度结构变化监测、体波联合成像、衰减结构成像、地震定位精度提高、噪声源分布和物理起源探究、强地面运动评估等。其优点是不需要等待天然地震或使用对环境构成威胁的人工爆破,所有台阵都可以当作源,拓宽了频带范围,可以获得较多短周期频散数据,提高反演分辨率。

Evaluating and correcting short-term clock drift in data from temporary seismic deployments

Temporary seismic network deployments often suffer from incorrect timing records and thus pose a challenge to fully utilize the valuable data.To inspect and fix such time problems,the ambient noise cross-correlation function(NCCF)has been widely adopted by using daily waveforms.However,it is still challenging to detect the shortterm clock drift and overcome the influence of local noise on NCCF.To address these challenges,we conduct a study on two temporary datasets,including an ocean-bottom-seismometer(OBS)dataset from the southern Mariana subduction zone and a dataset from a temporary dense network from the Weiyuan shale gas field,Sichuan,China.We first inspect the teleseismic and local event waveforms to evaluate the overall clock drift and data quality for both datasets.For the OBS dataset,NCCF using different time segments(3,6,and 12-h)beside daily waveforms data is computed to select the data length with optimal detection capability.Eventually,the 6-h segment is the preferred choice with high detection efficiency and low noise level.For the land dataset,higher drift detection is achieved by NCCF using the daily long waveforms.Meanwhile,we find that NCCF symmetry on the dense array is highly influenced by localized intense noise for large interstation distances(>1 km)but is well preserved for short interstation distances.The results have shown that the use of different segments of daily waveform data in the OBS dataset,and the careful selection of interstation distances in the land dataset substantially improved the NCCF results.All the clock drifts in both datasets are successfully corrected and verified with waveforms and NCCF.The newly developed strategies using short-segment NCCF help to overcome the existing issues to correct the clock drift of seismic data.