Estimating the orientation error of the Dahan Downhole Accelerometer using the maximum cross-correlation coefficient between the observed and synthetic waves

A new algorithm to correct the orientation error of the accelerometerat the Dahan Downhole Array, Hualien, Taiwan is developed. This algorithmconsists of three stages: (1) rotating two horizontal ground motions on thefree surface to the SH-SVdirection and SH axis offers a reference direction.(2) computing the synthetic downhole SH waves at a downhole station and (3)searching a rotation angle for downhole observation that yields a best waveformmatch between the synthetic and observed downhole seismograms. At this point, the rotated angle corresponding to the best waveform match can be considered as the orientation error. We selected five earthquakes with good data qualityfor analysis. Results show that this algorithm gives a more stable estimationthan a conventional method because it allows the selection of data from a wider time window for analyses. The estimated orientation error of the accelerometers at the Dahan Downhole Array after the 1999 reinstallation are40°, 114° and 285° at depths of 50, 100 and 200 m, respectively.