"An Analysis of Tradeoffs Between Seismometer Performance and Convenience"

Abstract:

In recent years, a multitude of different broadband seismometers of varying periods and performance

specifications have been developed. Scientists often have the unenviable task of selecting the best

equipment to suit a broad range of applications. We provide a high level view of some of the tradeoffs

available to the sensor design team that directly impact the utility and cost of the final product.

Additionally we review costs related to network installation, maintenance and operation and investigate

how these can be influenced by instrument choice. We compare the low noise model, the high noise

model, and the site noise of a typical installation to the expected signal strength for a variety of case

studies ranging from teleseismic to microseismic settings. For each case study we determine the effective

passband, the frequency range in which the expected signal exceeds both the site and instrument noise.

We compare the effective passband of a number of different instruments and investigate the effects

of changes to both instrument and site noise on the size of the passband. We find that for typical

installations, the site noise has the largest influence on the effective passband of an instrument. We

demonstrate that in some circumstances tradeoffs in certain performance specifications can pay dividends

in ease and cost of deployment without compromising overall network performance.