SRL Focus Section on Measuring and Monitoring Seismic Instrumentation

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Peggy Hellweg

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Jul 8, 2025, 1:40:09 PM7/8/25

to EarthScope General, Merchant, John, thomas...@ptb.de

Dear Colleagues and Friends,

my co-editors and I invite you to consider submitting a paper to the SRL Focus Section on Measuring and Monitoring Seismic Instrumentation. For a description, follow either the preceding link or see below. We are happy to answer questions. The deadline for submissions is 2 March 2026, however, papers will be reviewed as they are submitted and will be published as soon as they have been accepted. They will (likely) be published in print in the August 2026 issue of SRL.

We look forward to your contributions!

Best regards,

Peggy Hellweg, John Merchant and Thomas Bruns

SRL Focus Section on Measuring and Monitoring Seismic Instrumentation

Inertial broadband seismometers, digitizers and other modern monitoring tools are now often deployed in the field for long time intervals to measure earthquakes, explosions and other signals of interest. They allow high quality measurements over broad ranges of frequency, while also resolving them with very high resolution even under rough field conditions. Modern feedback seismometers, in particular, are precision measuring tools in the same league as other instruments designed for use in clean, stable laboratory environments.

Documenting and maintaining an understanding of the precision of the measurements in terms of the international system of units (SI) and tracking it over the lifetime of a broadband seismometer or other instrumentation requires carefully crafted calibration procedures. Instrument manufacturers deploy a variety of individual techniques to calibrate their wares before they are sold. Network operators deploy clever procedures to remotely monitor the performance of their instruments during their lifetime in the field. Currently, an effort is also underway to link the calibration of seismic sensors to fundamental SI constants and thereby introduce seismometers to standardized procedures common in the world of metrology.

We invite all those interested in seismic instrumentation and calibration techniques to contribute their ideas, procedures and results to this focus section of SRL, including manufacturers, users and metrologists. Topics include calibration techniques for broadband seismometers and other associated instrumentation such as digitizers, infrasound sensors or deformation measuring devices. Evaluating the precision and uncertainties of these instruments, their susceptibility to environmental conditions, the impact of installation methods and procedures, and the extent to which the uncertainty in their calibration affects the models used for the interpretation of seismic data are also of interest.

Guest Editors:

Thomas Bruns, Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (Thomas...@ptb.de)
Margaret Hellweg, University of California-Berkeley (retired) (Hel...@berkeley.edu)
John Merchant, Sandia National Lab (Bjm...@sandia.gov)