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Detecting Real Earthquakes Using Artificial Earthquakes: On the Use of Synthetic Waveforms in Matched‐Filter Earthquake Detection
Author(s) -
Chamberlain C. J.,
Townend J.
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/2018gl079872
Subject(s) - seismology , aftershock , focal mechanism , geology , waveform , microearthquake , matched filter , induced seismicity , filter (signal processing) , synthetic data , computer science , algorithm , radar , computer vision , telecommunications
Matched‐filters are an increasingly popular tool for earthquake detection, but their reliance on a priori knowledge of the targets of interest limits their application to regions with previously documented seismicity. We explore an extension to the matched‐filter method to detect earthquakes and low‐frequency earthquakes on local to regional scales. We show that it is possible to increase the number of detections compared with standard energy‐based methods, with low false‐detection rates, using suites of synthetic waveforms as templates. We apply this to a microearthquake swarm and an aftershock sequence, and to detect low‐frequency earthquakes. We also explore the sensitivity of detections to the synthetic source's location and focal mechanism. Source‐receiver geometry has a first‐order control on how sensitive matched‐filter detectors are to variations in source location and focal mechanism, and this likely applies to detections made using both synthetic and real templates.