Earthquake onset detection using spectro-ratio on multi-threshold

time–frequency sub-band

Abstraction

Automatic onset detection and picking algorithm has been proposed by applying the
spectro-ratio on time–frequency sub-band. The proposed algorithm does not need
any parameter settings as it will work on data generated by either short or very
broad band seismometers. The algorithm was applied on local events from Cairo
region recorded by three stations of the Egyptian National Seismic Network (ENSN).
Maximum standard deviation is observed to be 0.113 s of the corresponding manual
picks made by analysts.

1. Introduction
Automatic trigger algorithms are relatively ineffective when compared to a
seismologist’s pattern recognition ability to read seismograms, which is based on
years of experience and on the enormous capability of human brain. Manual analysis
of seismograms and phase picking is time-consuming and tedious. Automatic onset
picking is of great importance in event location, event identification, acquisition of
triggered seismic data, and source mechanism analysis. Various algorithms have
been proposed for automatic detection of onset arrivals.
All these algorithms are either based on amplitude, envelope, or power of the
seismic signal(s) in time or frequency domains.
Although all these sophisticated trigger algorithms had been proposed, they are
rarely used in the seismic data loggers currently in the market. The sophisticated
adjustments of operational parameters to actual signals and seismic noise conditions
at each seismic site had shown large error in practice making STA/LTA the most
popular choice. The STA/LTA algorithm is defined as the ratio between short term
average and long term average of time series data so that it suffers from the same
drawback as it also requires setting some parameters.

Motivated by these facts, the introduced frequency version of STA/LTA method in

which no need sophisticated parameter settings to make the decision, in contrast to
other algorithms which depended on either the algorithm itself or the nature of
noise at the site or the kind of seismometer used.
Fast Fourier transform (FFT) analysis of non-stationary signals cannot describe the
local transient features due to averaging over duration of the signal. For example,
the response of a linear system to unit amplitude stationary white noise and the
impulse response function of the system will have identical spectral descriptions, but
both will have drastically different time histories. One will be characterized by a
filtered white noise, while the other will represent a decaying signal. Time–frequency
analysis establishes a local spectrum for any time instant. High resolution cannot be
obtained in both time and frequency domains simultaneously. The window must be
chosen for locating sharp peaks or low frequency features, because of the inverse
relation between window length and the corresponding frequency bandwidth. This
drawback can be alleviated using wavelet analysis which has the flexibility to allow
the resolution in time and frequency to vary in the time–frequency plane to reach a
multi-resolution representation of the process.

The proposed algorithm, powers of frequency sub-bands are determined by

spectrogram as a time–frequency representation.
Adaptive thresholds are calculated for one of these sub-bands to check if there is a
p-wave arrival in the segment or not. To verify this check another test is done using
the spectro-ratio. Spectro-ratio is the ratio between two windows of the selected
sub-band vector. The difference between these two windows is one sample. At the
p-wave arrival, value of this ratio is one of the minimum values calculated.
Thresholds for the selected sub-band are adaptive as they are calculated at
beginning of each segment. Adaptive threshold setting enables us to detect the p-
wave arrival in presence of seismic noise which has a changing behavior. In addition
to using the time–frequency sub-band as a first step in p-wave picking, we
introduced the spectro-ratio as a second step in picking process to make sure that
the onset declared is not a false trigger.

Discusion
Salient features of seismic data
Seismic record consists of seismic events and seismic noise. If 𝑦(𝑡) denotes a sample
of seismic data at time t, then;

𝑦(𝑡) = 𝑥(𝑡) + 𝑣1(𝑡) + 𝑣2(𝑡) + 𝑣3(𝑡),

where 𝑥(𝑡) is the seismic event (earthquake), 𝑣1(𝑡)is seismic noise is mainly of local
origin and is caused by wind, traffic, machinery, 𝑣2(𝑡)is seismic noise, 𝑣3(𝑡) is
seismic noise is caused by storms over oceans [1].

As in the paper, the features of the seismic record are given below.

𝑛𝑜𝑛𝑧𝑒𝑟𝑜, 𝑡1 < 𝑡 < 𝑡2

𝑥(𝑡) = 𝑓(𝑥) = {
0, 𝑜𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑤𝑖𝑠𝑒

Earthquakes have higher power than 𝑣3(𝑡) given as;

𝑡1

∫ |𝑥(𝑡)|2 𝑑𝑡 ≫ 𝜃1 𝜃1 being maximum value of noise power

𝑡2

The p-wave power given as below;

𝑡3

∫ |𝑥(𝑡)|2 𝑑𝑡 ≥ 𝜃2 𝑡3 − 𝑡1 being duration of p − wave

𝑡1

𝑡2 − 𝑡1 ≫ 𝜏, where is maximum redorded duration

The frequency content of seismic event, 𝑥(𝑡), is much higher than that of seismic
noise, 𝑣3(𝑡).

Considerably, 𝑣1(𝑡) and 𝑣2(𝑡) in relation with 𝜏 is shown in the reference paper [1]

Methodology of the algorithm

The principle methodology of the algorithm leverages the time and frequency
domains of the signal as shown in the paper as;

1 𝑆𝑇𝐴
∑𝑛=1 |𝑦(𝑛)|
𝑆𝑇𝐴⁄𝐿𝑇𝐴 = 𝑆𝑇𝐴
1 𝐿𝑇𝐴
∑
𝐿𝑇𝐴 𝑛=1 |𝑦(𝑛)|
Conclusions

As with the original paper, we saw that the Spectro-ratio algorithm, it confirms the
conclusions drawn. A modern technique for determining the first arrival of
earthquakes was introduced using spectro-ratio applied on TFR sub-bands. A certain
frequency sub-band is monitored and searched for successive samples having power
greater than the adaptive thresholds determined. This will lead us to the arrival of
the onset timing. We used the spectro-ratio as another test to confirm the presence
of p-wave arrival and to avoid the false alarms. This ratio gives minimum value at
onset time.
Numerical simulations elaborate that the algorithm is very sensitive to small changes
of the power in the first arrival of p-wave.