Hypocenter location of mixed events in real-time processing systems

Automatic pickings in earthquake real-time monitoring systems often contain noise bursts and/or phases of different event(s) occurring almost simultaneously. Typically, a locator uses these picks as P and S waves arrival times coming from a single event and, therefore, should be complemented by a distinctive phase association logic. The method we propose manages to automatically associate data related to different events and eliminates the influence of spoiled data from single events. The method is based on “network beamforming”, a robust and stable algorithm, which utilizes a hypocenter grid search for the stack maximum of a set of complex exponents applied to the P phase readings. The algorithm separates the residual outliers and then uses them for location. If successful, a hypocenter is established for the interfering event. The solutions obtained are overall robust and independent from the estimate of origin times. The preliminary epicenter for the grid search is provided by the intersection of perpendicular bisectors in the modified “arrival order algorithm” or by the modified “T^now” algorithm, which uses non-arrival information. We applied this method to automatic first arrival phase readings of 915 events registered by the Hi-net Japan seismic network and our results are statistically promising. Here, we present two interesting and complicated examples.