Towards earthquake early warning for the Rion-Antirion bridge,Greece

Patras is the third largest city in Greece and an ideal candidate for earthquake early warning (EEW) applications due to its high seismic hazard, its existing research infrastructure and the presence of critical structures such as the Rion-Antirion bridge. Patras is located a few hundred kilometres from the Hellenic Arc, where very strong and potentially damaging earthquakes occur. This distance is large enough to allow a few tens of seconds of warning time prior to significant shaking, provided earthquakes are timely detected by a dense seismic network. Within the framework of the EC-funded project REAKT, the Virtual Seismologist (VS) EEW software was installed at Patras Seismological Laboratory. Its initial performance evaluation is presented here. In general VS provides magnitudes similar to the official, manually revised ones. Given the current station density and network telemetry, the average time that VS needs to deliver the first magnitude estimate is rather large, of the order of tens of seconds and not yet satisfactory for routine operational use of EEW. Even so, the system is able to provide up to 10 s of warning time prior to S-wave arrivals for events occurring on the Hellenic Arc. Our results indicate that the seismic networks in Greece need enhancements for regional EEW, either by adding stations or by upgrading the hardware to reduce delays. The application of an EEW system in the area is promising and, once operational, capable of mitigating earthquake risk.     

Earthquake early warning scenarios at critical facilities in the Eastern Caribbean

A feasibility study of an earthquake early warning (EEW) system was conducted for the Eastern Caribbean region using scenario earthquakes, corresponding to the maximum credible earthquakes and to the earthquakes associated with a return period of 475 years. Broadband synthetic seismograms were produced at selected critical facilities, where there is potential interest in the installation of an EEW system. The expected damage was derived from the synthetic seismograms and compared with the lead-time determined for both a regional and on-site EEW configuration. Next, the Virtual Seismologist EEW algorithm, as included in SeisComP3, was tested. Additional broadband synthetic seismograms were produced for the stations in the Eastern Caribbean seismic networks in order to simulate the real time behaviour of the seismic networks during the occurrence of the synthetic earthquakes and to assess the predictive capacity of the selected ground motion prediction equation. Expected peak ground parameters and lead-times at the critical facilities constitute the major outcome of the study.     

全球地震早期预警研究综述

近年来地震预警技术在国际上得到迅速的发展,并有成功预警且收到减灾实效的先例.本文系统介绍了地震早期预警的方法,包括波前探测、P波应用、现地预警和区域预警;介绍了地震早期预警系统在墨西哥、日本、土耳其、中国台湾和罗马尼亚等国家和地区的应用情况.还对地震预警中目前存在的问题和挑战以及远景进行了分析.     

A new prototype system for earthquake early warning in Taiwan

A new prototype earthquake early warning (EEW) system is being developed and tested using a real-time seismographic network currently in operation in Taiwan. This system is based on the Earthworm environment which carries out integrated analysis of real-time broadband, strong-motion and short-period signals. The peak amplitude of displacement in the three seconds after the P arrival, dubbed P_d, is used for the magnitude determination. Incoming signals are processed in real time. When a large earthquake occurs, P-wave arrival times and P_d will be estimated for location and magnitude determinations for EEW purpose. In a test of 54 felt earthquakes, this system can report earthquake information in 18.8±4.1 s after the earthquake occurrence with an average difference in epicenter locations of 6.3±5.7 km, and an average difference in depths of 7.9±6.6 km from catalogues. The magnitudes approach a 1:1 relationship to the reported magnitudes with a standard deviation of 0.51. Therefore, this system can provide early warning before the arrival of S-wave for metropolitan areas located 70 km away from the epicenter. This new system is still under development and being improved, with the hope of replacing the current operational EEW system in the future.     

地震预警实质的探讨

随着国家地震烈度速报与预警工程的开展,“地震预警”越来越进入公众的视线,国内外关于“什么是地震预警”的问题越来越多,对地震预警技术的解释也多种多样。本文论述了我国地震预警的进展,地震预警的实质和局限性。地震预警实质是地震观测进入密集观测新阶段,地震速报从分钟级发展到秒级超快地震速报,也就是地震警报。由于在地震预警实际应用中受预警盲区和地震强度估算不准确的局限,地震科学家对地震预警技术应用效能的认识也在不断加深和变化,逐步认识了发挥地震预警的警报作用的重要性。同时,地震预警是复杂的社会工程,引导公众认识地震预警的局限性,才能有效发挥减灾效能。      

On an earthquake early warning system (EEW) and its applications

It is clear that the basic countermeasure against earthquake strong motion is to reinforce buildings and other structures. Realtime earthquake disaster prevention is a countermeasure during the earthquake itself and is different from realtime seismology. An EEW, earthquake early warning system, is required to trigger realtime earthquake disaster prevention. It is important to avoid too much trust in EEW for the disaster prevention. This paper describes the concept of an EEW and gives a brief history, which eventually led to the development of the UrEDAS, the urgent earthquake detection and alarm system, the first operational P-wave early warning system. A real-world example of disaster prevention by this system is described. Finally, the role of national or public organizations in earthquake disaster prevention will be discussed, with special emphasis on the situation in Japan.     

烈度仪用于地震预警的可靠性研究——以高雄MS6.8地震为例

以2016年2月6日我国台湾高雄M_S6.8地震中烈度仪观测网的实际记录为研究对象,通过对烈度仪台站的震相捡拾结果精度、峰值地震动衰减关系适用性、预警震级计算结果准确性等3方面的对比分析,研究了烈度仪用于地震预警时的优势和可靠性,并讨论了可能存在的问题和风险.研究结果表明:对于震中附近具有较高信噪比的烈度仪台站,采用现有震相捡拾方法即可获得较准确的震相到时信息;现有的地震动衰减关系并不完全适用于烈度仪台网,直接应用这些关系式时存在一定风险;基于密集布设的烈度仪观测台网,在较短时间即可获取大量信息,采用已有预警震级估算方法的计算结果有较高的准确性.      

Progress of the earthquake early warning system in Fujian, China

In this article, we systematically introduce the latest progress of the earthquake early warning (EEW) system in Fujian, China. We focus on the following key technologies and methods: continuous earthquake location and its error evaluation; magnitude estimation; reliability judgment of EEW system information; use of double-parameter principle in EEW system information release threshold; real-time estimation of seismic intensity and available time for target areas; seismic-monitoring network and data sharing platform; EEW system information release and receiving platform; software test platform; and test results statistical analysis. Based on strong ground motion data received in the mainshock of the Wenchuan earthquake, the EEW system developed by the above algorithm is simulated online, and the results show that the system can reduce earthquake hazards effectively. In addition, we analyzed four earthquake cases with magnitude greater than 5.5 processed by our EEW system since the online-testing that was started one year ago, and results indicate that our system can effectively reduce earthquake hazards and have high practical significance.     

State-of-the art and future of earthquake early warning in the European region

European researchers and seismic networks are active in developing new approaches to earthquake early warning (EEW), implementing and operating test EEW systems, and in some cases, offering operational EEW to end users. We present the key recent developments in EEW research in Europe, describe the networks and regions where EEW is currently in testing or development, and highlight the two systems in Turkey and Romania that currently provide operational systems to a limited set of end users.     

Earthquake early warning and operational earthquake forecasting as real-time hazard information to mitigate seismic risk at nuclear facilities

Based on our experience in the project REAKT, we present a methodological framework to evaluate the potential benefits and costs of using earthquake early warning (EEW) and operational earthquake forecasting (OEF) for real-time mitigation of seismic risk at nuclear facilities. We focus on evaluating the reliability, significance and usefulness of the aforementioned real-time risk-mitigation tools and on the communication of real-time earthquake information to end-users. We find that EEW and OEF have significant potential for the reduction of seismic risk at nuclear plants, although much scientific research and testing is still necessary to optimise their operation for these sensitive and highly-regulated facilities. While our test bed was Switzerland, the methodology presented here is of general interest to the community of EEW researchers and end-users and its scope is significantly beyond its specific application within REAKT.     

An Introductory Overview of Earthquake Early Warning

Earthquake early warning (EEW) is discriminated from earthquake prediction by using initial seismic waves to predict the severity of ground motion and issue the warning information to potential affected area. The warning information is useful to mitigate the disaster and decrease the losses of life and economy. We reviewed the development history of EEW worldwide and summarized the methodologies using in different systems. Some new sensors came and are coming into EEW giving more developing potential to future implementation. The success of earthquake disaster mitigation relies on the cooperation of the whole society.     

基于国产密码的地震预警服务系统防篡改框架设计与应用

地震预警服务系统是地震预警系统的重要组成部分,是网络安全的重点防护目标和对象。由于地震预警信息影响广泛,需要保证其真实性、完整性及服务的高时效性,为此设计一种基于国产密码算法的地震预警服务系统防篡改框架,使用数字证书和协同签名技术,对身份鉴别和消息完整性校验过程进行优化,使得密码算法的时间消耗足够小。设计完成后,上述操作消耗的时间小于0.2 s,兼顾了地震预警信息的安全性和高时效性。     

Performance-based earthquake early warning

Significant investments are undergoing internationally to develop earthquake early warning (EEW) systems. So far, reasonably, the most of the research in this field was lead by seismologists as the issues to determine essential feasibility of EEW were mainly related to the earthquake source. Many of them have been brilliantly solved, and the principles of this discipline are collected in the so-called real-time seismology. On the other hand, operating EEW systems rely on general-purpose intensity measures as proxies for the impending ground motion potential and are suitable for population alert. In fact, to date, comparatively little attention was given to EEW by earthquake engineering, and design approaches for structure-specific EEW are mostly lacking. Applications to site-specific systems have not been extensively investigated and EEW convenience is not yet proven except a few pioneering cases, although the topic is certainly worthwhile. For example, in structure-specific EEW the determination of appropriate alarm thresholds is important when the false alarm may induce significant losses; similarly, economic appeal with respect to other risk mitigation strategies as seismic upgrade should be assessed. In the paper the least issues to be faced in the design of engineering applications of EEW are reviewed and some work done in this direction is discussed. The review presented intends to summarize the work of the author and co-workers in this field illustrating a possible performance-based approach for the design of structure-specific applications of EEW.     

日本地震预警系统发展历程

地震预警（EEW）或实时地震预警系统是指,几秒内检测到临近区域可能发生的强烈地震后,对本地提供预警信息的系统。地震预警的目标是,通过相应决策让人们能够在多种环境中保护自己,并减轻与地震相关的次生灾害。本文详细介绍了地震预警系统在日本的发展历程,指出预警信息已不再局限于向高级用户和公众用户进行发布,私人定制用户已成为预警信息发布的重要需求。未来地震预警技术的发展,特别是实时断层源成像识别技术,对改善预警系统并快速识别震源参数具有重要意义。     

Epistemic uncertainty in on-site earthquake early warning on the use of PGV–PD3 empirical models

From the literature, we found that PGV–PD3 regressions for on-site earthquake early warning (EEW) can be quite different depending on the presumption whether or not PGV–PD3 data from different regions should be “mixable” in regression analyses. As a result, this becomes a source of epistemic uncertainty in the selection of a PGV–PD3 empirical relationship for on-site EEW. This study is aimed at examining the influence of this epistemic uncertainty on EEW decision-making, and demonstrating it with an example on the use of PGV–PD3 models developed with data from Taiwan, Japan, and Southern California. The analysis shows that using the “global” PGV–PD3 relationship for Southern California would accompany a more conservative EEW decision-making (i.e., early warning is activated more frequently) than using the local empirical model developed with the PGV–PD3 data from Southern California only. However, the influence of this epistemic uncertainty on EEW is not that obvious for the cases of Taiwan and Japan.     

地震预警震级计算方法研究综述

地震预警系统是减轻地震灾害的有效手段之一,世界上多个国家和地区都已经建立了地震预警系统,并在实际应用中取得了显著的减灾实效.由于地震预警系统应用中的高度时效性要求,预警震级计算是整个地震预警系统中最重要也是最困难的一部分.本文回顾总结了地震预警研究中采用的一些震级计算方法,并将其归纳为三大类算法:与初始周期相关的算法、与初始幅值相关的算法和与初始强度相关的算法.对每种算法都做了详尽介绍和仔细分析,同时列举出与该算法相关的研究成果.通过对这些算法的分析总结并结合我国地震观测台网的实际情况,作者推荐τc、Pd两种方法作为我国地震预警系统建设中优先采用的两种预警震级算法.     

Designing efficient earthquake early warning systems: case study of Almaty, Kazakhstan

Rapidly expanding urban areas in Central Asia are increasingly vulnerable to seismic risk; but at present, no earthquake early warning (EEW) systems exist in the region despite their successful implementation in other earthquake-prone areas. Such systems aim to provide short (seconds to tens of seconds) warnings of impending disaster, enabling the first risk mitigation and damage control steps to be taken. This study presents the feasibility of such a system for Almaty, Kazakhstan. Genetic algorithms are used to design efficient EEW networks, computing optimal station locations and trigger thresholds in recorded ground acceleration. Factors like the possibility of station failure, elevation and access difficulty to a potential site, and the potential usefulness of existing stations in the region are considered. We present a large set of possible efficient networks, to which further selection criteria can be applied by both the installation teams and the end user, such as authorities in Almaty.     

福建省地震台网预警能力评估

由于常用的均方根值法和噪声功率谱法不能消除不同传感器记录的噪声干扰,为提高噪声水平计算的准确度,本文选用最大概率峰值位移作为背景噪声评估指标。基于可靠的噪声数据,借鉴震级-最大距离监测能力法并考虑预警时效,提出了地震预警最小震级评估方法,系统评估福建三类传感器网及其融合网的地震预警最小震级和预警首报时间。结果表明：测震强震融合网的地震预警最小震级高于单测震网,但明显低于强震网;强震烈度计融合网与单烈度计网的结果相近;三网融合后95%区域的地震预警最小震级约为M_L3.2。由于烈度计网比测震和强震网密集,其预警首报时间最短;三网融合相对于单测震网或单强震网,其震后地震预警首报时间得到了明显缩短,预计95%区域的首报时间为4—6 s。本文研究为福建省的台网布局的优化和重点区域监测能力的提升提供了参考依据。     

Earthquake early warning: Concepts,methods and physical grounds

Modern technology allows real-time seismic monitoring facilities to evolve into earthquake early warning (EEW) systems, capable of reducing deaths, injuries, and economic losses, as well as of speeding up rescue response and damage recovery. The objective of an EEW system is to estimate in a fast and reliable way the earthquake’s damage potential, before the strong shaking hits a given target.     

Pd-τc相容性检验方法在触发事件判别分析中的应用

结合福建地区地震预警系统的运行情况和处理能力, 利用日本KiK-net台网和福建地震台网记录的天然地震事件和人工爆破事件实测数据, 探讨了P_d-τ_c相容性检验方法在触发事件类型实时判别中应用的可行性． 结果表明, P_d-τ_c相容性检验方法能够较好地区分大震级地方震与误触发事件, 也能对远震事件进行粗略判别, 但对于小震级地方震和人工爆破事件则无法有效判别． 随后, 以P_d-τ_c相容性检验结果为基础, 本文设定强度参数P_d=10-3 cm为界线, 即可从众多触发事件中甄选出可能产生破坏的大震级地方震事件． 本文方法有助于提高触发事件类型判别结果的可靠性、 预警系统的处理效率和系统产出信息的准确度．