Magnetotelluric (MT) data are inverted for smooth 2-D models using an extension of the existing 1-D algorithm, Occam’s inversion. Since an MT data set consists of a finite number of imprecise data, an infinity of solutions to the inverse problem exists. Fitting field or synthetic electromagnetic data as closely as possible results in theoretical models with a maximum amount of roughness, or structure. However, by relaxing the misfit criterion only a small amount, models which are maximally smooth may be generated. Smooth models are less likely to result in overinterpretation of the data and reflect the true resolving power of the MT method. The models are composed of a large number of rectangular prisms, each having a constant conductivity. [Formula: see text] information, in the form of boundary locations only or both boundary locations and conductivity, may be included, providing a powerful tool for improving the resolving power of the data. Joint inversion of TE and TM synthetic data generated from known models allows comparison of smooth models with the true structure. In most cases, smoothed versions of the true structure may be recovered in 12–16 iterations. However, resistive features with a size comparable to depth of burial are poorly resolved. Real MT data present problems of non‐Gaussian data errors, the breakdown of the two‐dimensionality assumption and the large number of data in broadband soundings; nevertheless, real data can be inverted using the algorithm.

Most large (over a kilometre in diameter) near-Earth asteroids are now known, but recognition that airbursts (or fireballs resulting from nuclear-weapon-sized detonations of meteoroids in the atmosphere) have the potential to do greater damage 1 than previously thought has shifted an increasing portion of the residual impact risk (the risk of impact from an unknown object) to smaller objects 2 . Above the threshold size of impactor at which the atmosphere absorbs sufficient energy to prevent a ground impact, most of the damage is thought to be caused by the airburst shock wave 3 , but owing to lack of observations this is uncertain 4,5 . Here we report an analysis of the damage from the airburst of an asteroid about 19 metres (17 to 20 metres) in diameter southeast of Chelyabinsk, Russia, on 15 February 2013, estimated to have an energy equivalent of approximately 500 (6100) kilotons of trinitrotoluene (TNT, where 1 kiloton of TNT 54.185310 12 joules). We show that a widely referenced technique 4-6 of estimating airburst damage does not reproduce the observations, and that the mathematical relations 7 based on the effects of nuclear weapons-almost always used with this technique-overestimate blast damage. This suggests that earlier damage estimates 5,6 near the threshold impactor size are too high. We performed a global survey of airbursts of a kiloton or more (including Chelyabinsk), and find that the number of impactors with diameters of tens of metres may be an order of magnitude higher than estimates based on other techniques 8,9 . This suggests a non-equilibrium (if the population were in a long-term collisional steady state the size-frequency distribution would either follow a single power law or there must be a size-dependent bias in other surveys) in the near-Earth asteroid population for objects 10 to 50 metres in diameter, and shifts more of the residual impact risk to these sizes. for the Chelyabinsk airburst, based on indirect illumination measured from video records. The brightness is an average derived from indirect scattered sky brightness from six videos proximal to the airburst, corrected for the sensor gamma setting, autogain, range and airmass extinction, following the procedure used for other airburst light curves generated from video 24,25 . The light curve has been normalized using the US government sensor data peak brightness value of 2.7 3 10 13 W sr 21, corresponding to an absolute astronomical magnitude of 228 in the silicon bandpass. The individual video light curves deviate by less than one magnitude between times 22 and 11.5 with larger deviations outside this interval. Time zero corresponds to 03:20:32.2 UTC on 15 February 2013. b, The energy deposition per unit height for the Chelyabinsk airburst, based on video data. The conversion to absolute energy deposition per unit path length assumes a blackbody emission of 6,000 K and bolometric efficiency of 17%, the same as the assumptions used to convert earlier US government sensor information to energy 26 . The heights are computed us...

[1] During the early stages of the [2004][2005][2006][2007][2008] Mount St. Helens eruption, the source process that produced a sustained sequence of repetitive long-period (LP) seismic events also produced impulsive broadband infrasonic signals in the atmosphere. To assess whether the signals could be generated simply by seismic-acoustic coupling from the shallow LP events, we perform finite difference simulation of the seismo-acoustic wavefield using a single numerical scheme for the elastic ground and atmosphere. The effects of topography, velocity structure, wind, and source configuration are considered. The simulations show that a shallow source buried in a homogeneous elastic solid produces a complex wave train in the atmosphere consisting of P/SV and Rayleigh wave energy converted locally along the propagation path, and acoustic energy originating from the source epicenter. Although the horizontal acoustic velocity of the latter is consistent with our data, the modeled amplitude ratios of pressure to vertical seismic velocity are too low in comparison with observations, and the characteristic differences in seismic and acoustic waveforms and spectra cannot be reproduced from a common point source. The observations therefore require a more complex source process in which the infrasonic signals are a record of only the broadband pressure excitation mechanism of the seismic LP events. The observations and numerical results can be explained by a model involving the repeated rapid pressure loss from a hydrothermal crack by venting into a shallow layer of loosely consolidated, highly permeable material. Heating by magmatic activity causes pressure to rise, periodically reaching the pressure threshold for rupture of the ''valve'' sealing the crack. Sudden opening of the valve generates the broadband infrasonic signal and simultaneously triggers the collapse of the crack, initiating resonance of the remaining fluid. Subtle waveform and amplitude variability of the infrasonic signals as recorded at an array 13.4 km to the NW of the volcano are attributed primarily to atmospheric boundary layer propagation effects, superimposed upon amplitude changes at the source.Citation: Matoza, R.

[1] A large meteor entered the atmosphere above northeastern Oregon on 19 February 2008 at 530 PST. Several hundreds of broadband seismic stations in the U.S. Pacific Northwest recorded acoustic-to-seismic coupled signals from this event. The travel times of the first arriving energy are consistent with a terminal explosion source model, suggesting that the large size of the explosion masked any signals associated with a continuous line source along its supersonic trajectory. Several infrasound arrays in North America also recorded this event. Both the seismic and infrasound data have been used to locate the explosion in 3-D space and time. Climatological atmospheric velocity models predict that infrasound signals from sources that occur at mid-northern latitudes in winter are usually ducted to the east due to eastward zonal winds. In this paper, we analyze travel time picks and use 3-D ray tracing to generate synthetic travel times based on various atmospheric models to show that the seismic network data instead reveal a predominant westward propagation direction. A sudden stratospheric warming event that reversed the zonal wind flow explains this westward propagation. The seismic data illuminate in unprecedented spatial detail the range and azimuthal definition of shadow zones out to a range of 500 km, suggesting that dense seismic networks can be used to study infrasound propagation at spatial resolutions that exceed that which can be done with only a handful of globally distributed infrasound arrays.Citation: Hedlin, M. A. H., D. Drob, K. Walker, and C. de Groot-Hedlin (2010), A study of acoustic propagation from a large bolide in the atmosphere with a dense seismic network,

a bolide traveled across the sky along a southern trajectory ending in a terminal burst above Oregon. The event was well recorded by the USArray, other seismic networks, four infrasound arrays, and several video cameras. We compare the results of locating the burst using these different sensor networks. Specifically, we reverse time migrate acoustic-to-seismic coupled signals recorded by the USArray out to 800 km range to image the source in 2-D space and time. We also apply a grid search over source altitude and time, minimizing the misfit between observed and predicted arrival times using 3-D ray tracing with a high-resolution atmospheric velocity model. Our seismic and video results suggest a point source rather than a line source associated with a hypersonic trajectory. We compare the seismic source locations to those obtained by using different combinations of observed infrasound array signal back azimuths and arrival times. We find that all locations are consistent. However, the seismic location is more accurate than the infrasound locations due to the larger number of seismic sensors, a more favorable seismic source-receiver geometry, and shorter ranges to the seismometers. For the infrasound array locations, correcting for the wind improved the accuracy, but implementing arrival times while increasing the precision reduced the accuracy presumably due to limitations of the source location method and/or atmospheric velocity model. We show that despite known complexities associated with acoustic-to-seismic coupling, aboveground infrasound sources can be located with dense seismic networks with remarkably high accuracy and precision.

[1] In this study reverse time migration is applied to signals recorded by the 2007-08 USArray, presumably due to acoustic-to-seismic coupling, to detect and locate in two-dimensional space and time 901 sources of atmospheric infrasound, defining the Western United States Infrasonic Catalog (WUSIC). The detections are visually inspected and ranked. Uncertainties are estimated using a bootstrap technique. The method correctly locates most rocket motor detonations in Utah and a bolide explosion in Oregon with an average spatial accuracy of 50 km and 25 km, respectively. The origin time statistics for 2007 and 2008 events are nearly identical and suggest a predominant human origin. The event locations illuminate repeating sources of infrasound, or "infrasonic hot spots," in Nevada, Utah, and Idaho that are spatially associated with active military areas. The infrasonic arrivals comprise several branches that are observed to a range between 200 and 1500 km to the east and west of the epicenter in the winter and summer, respectively. The optimum group velocities are Gaussian distributed and centered at 295 m/s. A seasonal variation in optimum group velocities exhibits good correlation with atmospheric temperature. The results show that relatively dense seismic networks fill in the gaps between sparsely located infrasound arrays and provide valuable information for regional infrasonic source location and propagation studies. Specifically, the catalogs presented here can be used to statistically validate and improve propagation models, especially above the middle stratosphere where winds are not directly measured by ground-based weather stations or meteorological satellites.

Surface waves recorded by global arrays have proven useful for locating tectonic earthquakes and in detecting slip events depleted in high frequency, such as glacial quakes. We develop a novel method using an aggregation of small-to continental-scale arrays to detect and locate seismic sources with Rayleigh waves at 20-50 s period. The proposed method is a hybrid approach including first dividing a large aperture aggregate array into Delaunay triangular subarrays for beamforming, and then using the resolved surface wave propagation directions and arrival times from the subarrays as data to formulate an inverse problem to locate the seismic sources and their origin times. The approach harnesses surface wave coherence and maximizes resolution of detections by combining measurements from stations spanning the whole U.S. continent. We tested the method with earthquakes, glacial quakes and landslides. The results show that the method can effectively resolve earthquakes as small as ∼M3 and exotic slip events in Greenland. We find that the resolution of the locations is non-uniform with respect to azimuth, and decays with increasing distance between the source and the array when no calibration events are available. The approach has a few advantages: the method is insensitive to seismic event type, it does not require a velocity model to locate seismic sources, and it is computationally efficient. The method can be adapted to real-time applications and can help in identifying new classes of seismic sources.

Unprecedented hydroacoustic observations of the megathrust earthquake of 26 Dec, 2004 were afforded by a network of 5 small hydroacoustic arrays located in the Indian Ocean, at distances of 2800 to 7000 km from the epicenter. Each array recorded acoustic waves, called T waves, generated by this event. Analysis of a series of short time windows within the T wave coda shows that the receiver to source azimuth varies smoothly as a function of time, indicating that the apparent T wave source is not stationary. The apparent T wave source moves northward along the Sunda trench at an average velocity of 2 km/s, closely tracking event rupture. The hydroacoustic data suggest that the rupture proceeded in two distinct phases; initially it progressed northwest along the Sunda trench with a velocity of approximately 2.4 km/s. At 600 km from the epicenter the rupture slowed to approximately 1.5 km/s, as it continued to propagate to the northwest.