Magnitudes¶
Magnitudes are computed based on amplitudes measured from waveforms. Different types of amplitudes and magnitudes are available which are listed in scamp and scmag.
Amplitudes¶
Amplitudes can be measured from waveforms
Automatically during phase picking by scautopick with generally fixed time windows due to the absence of knowledge about source parameters.
Automatically by scamp as soon as origins are available. Depending on the magnitude type, fixed or distance-dependent time windows apply.
Interactively using scolv.
Time grammar applies for configuring the time windows.
Wood-Anderson simulation¶
Amplitude measurements for some magnitude types require or allow the simulation
of instruments such as Wood-Anderson torsion seismometers
(Richter [65], Uhrhammer and Collins [72]), WWSSN_SP()
or WWSSN_LP()
.
The calibration parameters describing the Wood-Anderson seismometer are
configurable in global bindings or global module configuration:
amplitudes.WoodAnderson.gain
, amplitudes.WoodAnderson.T0
,
amplitudes.WoodAnderson.h
. Specifically, the difference in magnitude
due to configuration using original values listed in
Richter [65] and updated ones given in Uhrhammer and Collins [72]
result in a constant offset of 0.13 in those magnitudes which apply
Wood-Anderson simulation, e.g. ML,
MLv, MLc.
Input data¶
Amplitudes are initially measured on raw data or data corrected for the WA
instrument assuming counts and streams with gain unit of M/S which is typical
for seismometers. It is assumed that the measured signal has its dominant
frequency where the response of the recording instrument is flat. For other
instruments such as accelerometers or short-period geophones, amplitude
correction for instrument response and the corresponding frequency range may be
configured by the global binding parameters
amplitudes.enableResponses
, amplitudes.resp.minFreq
,
amplitudes.resp.maxFreq
or even with in amplitude-type profiles for
more specific application. Amplitude measurements will fail if the
unit of the (corrected) input data do not correspond to the requirement of the
amplitude type.
Final amplitude measurements are corrected by stream gain and provided as an amplitude object.
Physical units¶
The physical units of measured amplitudes depend on amplitudes type. They are documented along with the corresponding magnitude type.
Station Magnitudes¶
Station magnitudes are computed automatically by scmag or interactively by scolv from measured amplitudes based on distance-dependent calibration curves which depend on magnitude type. When computing a set of magnitudes in scolv which is different from the set configured in scmag, then scmag may later add the missing magnitudes automatically. Magnitude types for which the evaluation status is set to “rejected”, e.g., in scolv, will not be recomputed by scmag. In order to ignore a magnitude type interactively, it should be computed in scolv and then rejected.
Station corrections¶
Linear station corrections applied to station magnitudes can be configured by global binding parameters:
Add a magnitude type profile where the name of the profile is the name of the magnitude itself,
Configure the correction parameters.
When using binding profiles, all referencing stations will be affected equally which is typically not intended. In contrast, applying station bindings requires to set up many bindings which may not be intended either.
Therefore, you may add lines to the global module configuration in
global.cfg
where one line corresponds to one station with one magnitude
and the corresponding correction parameter. The groups and the name of the
parameters are identical to the global bindings parameters. All lines start with
“module.trunk”. Example for an offset correction of
MLv measured station GE.UGM:
module.trunk.GE.UGM.magnitudes.MLv.offset = 0.1
Note
The configuration of parameters starting with module.trunk. is not
supported by scconfig. All corresponding configurations must be done
by direclty editing the configuration file, e.g.,
seiscomp/etc/global.cfg
.
Network Magnitudes¶
Network magnitudes are computed automatically by scmag or interactively
by scolv from station magnitudes based on averaging station magnitudes.
The averaging methods applied by scmag are configurable by
magnitudes.average
. Available are (Rosenberger and Gasko [67]):
mean: the mean value from all station magnitudes.
median: the mean value from all station magnitudes.
trimmedMean(X): gnores outlier station magnitudes by first removing the largest and the smallest X % of the observed values (percentiles). The mean is formed from the remaining station magnitudes.
trimmedMedian(X): forms the median from all station magnitudes but returns the uncertainty by ignoring the largest and the smallest X % station magnitudes.
medianTrimmedMean(X): returns the mean magnitude from all station magnitudes differing less than X magnitudes from the median.
Aliases¶
New magnitude types (aliases) can be created based on existing magnitude and amplitude types but configured specifically. The setup procedure is outlined in the tutorial on magnitude aliases.
Regionalization¶
The computation of station magnitudes can be regionalized. This means that for a specific region specific conditions apply when computing magnitudes. The conditions include any parameter available for configuring a magnitude including global binding parameters such as magnitude calibration, distance and depth ranges, etc. As an example you may wish to apply different attenuation curves for computing MLv magnitudes to earthquakes in Eastern and in Western Canada.
Regionalization is achieved by adding magnitude-type profiles in the magnitudes section of global module configuration parameters. Regionalization assumes defaults from global bindings but overrides the values when configured. The setup procedure including station corrections is outlined in the tutorial on regionalization.
Moment Magnitudes¶
Moment magnitudes can be derived from all other network magnitudes by mapping of the original network magnitude, e.g., Mx, to a new moment magnitude Mw(Mx).
The mapping function can be configured for all original magnitude types except mB and Mwp where the mapping is hardcoded. Read the tutorial on moment magnitudes for the configuration.
Summary Magnitude¶
In order to account for different phenomena related to magnitude computation including magnitude saturation and application of different magnitude types at specific distance and depth ranges of the sources a summary magnitude can be computed from network magnitudes by scmag. The summary magnitude is usually referred to as M. The name is configurable.
Note
Station, network and summary magnitudes are contained uniquely in one origin.
Preferred Magnitude¶
From the list of computed network magnitudes and the summary magnitude, scevent can automatically determine the preferred magnitude of the event. This may also be done interactively by operators in the Event tab of scolv or by custom commit buttons in scolv.