Progress on Development of an Earthquake Early Warning System Using Low-Cost Sensors

Abstract

Taiwan is one of the leading developers of earthquake early warning (EEW) systems. The Central Weather Bureau has been the primary developer of the EEW system in Taiwan since 1993. In 2010, the National Taiwan University (NTU) developed an EEW system for research purposes using low-cost accelerometers. As of 2014, a total of 506 stations have been deployed and configured. The NTU system can provide earthquake information within 15 s of an earthquake occurrence. Thus, this system may provide early warnings for cities located more than 50 km from the epicenter. Additionally, the NTU system also has an onsite alert function that triggers a warning for incoming P-waves greater than a certain magnitude threshold, thus providing a 2-3 s lead time before peak ground acceleration for regions close to an epicenter. Detailed shaking maps are produced by the NTU system within one or two minutes after an earthquake. Regions of high shaking indicated by the shalking map can indicate locations of damage and casualties and help estimate the damage incurred. The direction of earthquake ruptures are also potentially identified based on detailed shaking maps and strong motion records of the NTU system.

MyShake: Initial observations from a global smartphone seismic network

“…Since the introduction of low-cost accelerometers in consumer devices such as cars and computers, seismologists have been experimenting with how these sensors might contribute to the science of seismology and hazard reduction [Allen, 2007;Cochran et al, 2009b;Fleming et al, 2009;Chung et al, 2011;Clayton et al, 2011Clayton et al, , 2015Wu et al, 2016Wu et al, , 2013Evans et al, 2014;Wu and Lin, 2014;Wu, 2015]. While these devices have significantly lower price tags than traditional seismic stations, the data are of lower quality and the operation of networks of low-cost devices is complex and not necessarily low cost.…”

Incorporating Low-Cost Seismometers into the Central Weather Bureau Seismic Network for Earthquake Early Warning in Taiwan

“…A near real-time Peak Ground Acceleration (PGA) map can be obtained by the PSN within one minute from a large earthquake occurrence (Wu et al , 2013bHsieh et al 2014;Wu 2015). By incorporating the PSN into the CWB-SN, the ISN can generate a PGA map with greater detail.…”

“…By incorporating the PSN into the CWB-SN, the ISN can generate a PGA map with greater detail. The PGA map can be used as an indicator for the most damaged areas, the fault rupture direction and the potential aftershock distribution (Hsieh et al 2014;Wu 2015). A dense seismic network provides another solution for earthquake magnitude determination.…”

“…The Palert Seismic Network (PSN) was tested and operated for both on-site and regional EEW systems by NTU since 2010. The Palert system is capable of providing high quality, stable data streams for earthquake monitoring (Wu et al 2013b;Hsieh et al 2014;Wu 2015).…”

Near‐Real‐Time Estimates on Earthquake Rupture Directivity Using Near‐Field Ground Motion Data From a Dense Low‐Cost Seismic Network

“…The data are transmitted in real time by internet and the timing control is based on Network Time Protocol synchronization. The P-Alert network has successfully been used in many scientific studies including regional (Chen et al, 2015;Wu, 2015) and on-site EEW systems (Hsieh et al, 2015), near-real-time shaking maps (Hsieh et al, 2014;Wu et al, 2016), and coseismic deformation determination (Jan et al, 2017). Figure 1 shows the station distribution of P-Alert network all around Taiwan.…”