A brief introduction to seismic instrumentation: Where does my data come from?

Seismological Research Letters
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Abstract

Modern seismology has been able to take advantage of several technological advances. These include feedback loops in the seismometer, specialized digitizers with absolute timing, and compression formats for storing data. While all of these advances have helped to improve the field, they can also leave newcomers a bit confused. Our goal here is to give a brief overview of how recordings of seismic ground motion originate. We discuss the chain of events that are required to obtain digital data plus how these steps can be reversed to recover units of ground motion such as acceleration, velocity, or displacement. Finally, we show a few examples of data that has become compromised because of various non-ground motion signals. We hope to give a quick practical introduction to allow the reader to become familiar with the various jargon used in observational seismology.
Publication type Article
Publication Subtype Journal Article
Title A brief introduction to seismic instrumentation: Where does my data come from?
Series title Seismological Research Letters
DOI 10.1785/0220190214
Volume 91
Issue 2A
Year Published 2020
Language English
Publisher Seismological Society of America
Contributing office(s) Geologic Hazards Science Center
Description 10 p.
First page 1074
Last page 1083
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