Efforts to improve accelerometric data quality and archiving in Europe

Sinan AkkarEarthquake Engineering Research Center

Middle East Technical University Ankara, Turkey

Earthquake Engineering Research Institute

Middle East Technical University

Outline

• Past and current efforts to increase the quality and dissemination of accelerometric data in Europe and surrounding countries

• Achievements and possible future actions for the sustainability of these efforts

o Work carried out by the Imperial College group

o National projects (Turkey and Italy)

o International projectso NERIESo SHAREo EMMEo NERAo SIGMA

Already finished, almost finishing and in progress projects in and around Europe

o Collecting strong-motion data started in 1971

o A CD-Rom is published in 2000 (1068 mainly triaxial accelerograms

o A web site (ISESD) is established in 2002 (2213 accelerograms from 856 earthquakes and 691 stationso Raw and processed records, their

elastic response spectra, seismological information on earthquakes and basic information on sensors

Studies conducted under the leadership of Imperial College

Ambrasseys et al. (2004)

Studies to compile Turkish strong-motion data

o A total of 4607 (1976-2007) accelerograms are compiledo Data are processed

systematicallyo Site characterization of stations

are done from geophysical and geological measurements

o Earthquake metadata information are compiled from 18 different catalogs

o A web site is established under the management of AFAD (owner of national strong-motion network)

Akkar et al. (2010)

Studies to compile Italian strong-motion data

• A total of 2182 accelerograms (1972-2007) from 1004 earthquakes are compiled– Uniform data processing as

well as homogenous earthquake and station metadata information

– The ITACA web site for disseminating the data

Luzi et al. (2008)

Studies for the compilation of SHARE strong-motion databank (SHARE SM DB)

o Project-specific SHARE SM DB is composed of 14193 records from 2448 worldwide earthquakes.

o Open-source databases used in compilation:o Kik-Neto ESMD/ISESDo NGAo T-NSMPo ITACA

o No specific studies to improve metadata or waveform quality. Only removal of duplicated records from the considered databases.

Yenier et al. (2008)

Studies for the compilation of EMME strong-motion databank (EMME SM DB)

o Project-specific EMME SM DB is composed of recordings from Turkey, Iran, Jordan, Caucuses (Georgia and Armenia) and Pakistano Uniform data processing,

homogenous event and station metadata information

o A total of 4994 accelerograms

Distance, RJB (km)

0.1 1 10 100

Mag

nitu

de,

Mw

3

4

5

6

7

8

Turkey [1750]Iran [3011]Caucasus [165]Pakistan [12]Jordan [6]

500

[1586]

Country-based data distribution of EMME SM DB

Courtesy of Ö. Kale

Studies for the compilation of RESORCE (SIGMA) strong-motion databank

o Project-specific RESORCE SM DB is the elaborated and extended version of SHARE SM DB to improve the quality of pan-European accelerometric data.o Includes the most recent data

from Greece, Italy, Turkey, France and Switzerland on top of those included in SHARE

o Uniform data processing, homgenous event and station metadata information

Yearly distribution of data included in the RESORCE SM DB (5154 records from 1664 events recorded at 1448 stations)

Akkar et al. (2013)

NERIES – NA5

o Backbone studies in the Euro-Mediterranean region to establish the near-real time accelerometric data exchange infrastructureo Initial steps in data

exchange protocols and station information

o Initial steps in reliable data processing of near-real time accelerometric data

o Initial steps in SHAKE maps

Achieved/not achieved

o Each individual project improved the data quality and extended the data limits according to the major project deliverables

o Researchers involved in these projects learned (improved) state-of-the-art methods in data compilation, processing, exchange etc

o No sustainabilityo No objective quality control (community consensus

on the delivered product)o Limited transfer of knowledge / information to

engineering and seismological community

NERA – NA3o Fine tuning and completion of

data exchange and processing of near-real time data (RRSM)

o Establishing an infrastructure for the communication between RRSM data and conventional static strong-motion data (ESM): Integrated Dynamic European Strong-Motion Databank

o Networking among accelerometric data providers to invite them for supporting these efforts

Courtesy of John Clinton, Carlo Cauzzi and Philip Kästli

Future actions: main discussions in this WSo Valuable and useful experience about establishing

accelerometric databases does exist in the broader European context

o A comprehensive work has been conducted by the NERA-NA3 group to establish a prototype infrastructure that can lead to high quality dynamic European strong-motion databank

o This infrastructure (together with the existing experience) should be coordinated by an international consortium that consists of data providers under a non-profit establishment.

o The interaction between the consortium and EPOS is important as EPOS can shape the future projects in geosciences at European level

o These actions (upon their refinement) would make these efforts sustainable in the long run