A novel progressive signal association algorithm for detecting teleseismic/network-outside events using regional seismic networks

Abstract

Regional seismic networks may and in some cases need to be used to monitor teleseismic or network-outside events. For detecting and localizing teleseismic events automatically and reliably in this case, in this paper we present a novel progressive association algorithm for teleseismic signals recorded by a regional seismic network. The algorithm takes triangle station arrays as the starting point to search for P waves of teleseismic events progressively by that, as detections from different stations actually are from the same teleseismic event, their arrival times should be linearly related to the average slowness vector withwhich the signal propagates across the network, and the slowness of direct teleseismic P wave basically is different from other major seismic phases. We have tested this algorithm using data recorded by Xinjiang Seismic Network of China (XJSN) for 16 d. The results show that the algorithm can effectively and reliably detect and localize earthquakes outside of the network. For the period of the test data, as all mb 4.0+ events with Δc < 30° and all mb 4.5+ events with Δc < 60° referring to the International Data Center-Reviewed Event Bulletin (IDC REB) were detected, where Δc is the epicentral distance relative to the network's geographical centre, the rate of false events only accounted for 2.4 per cent, suggesting that the new association algorithm has good application prospect for situations when regional seismic networks need to be used to monitor teleseismic events.