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Wind gust quantification using seismic measurements

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Abstract

Wind gusts are a major cause of damage to property and the natural environment and a source of noise in seismic networks such as the USArray Transportable Array. Wind gusts cause ground motion through shear stresses, pressure fluctuations and vegetation flexing. Herein, we demonstrate the presence of a seismic response signature to wind gusts at sites across the contiguous USA and explore important geophysical factors that determine the precise nature of wind gust–seismic response relationships. There is a consistent seismic response to wind gusts that is typically manifest at relatively low frequency (0.05–0.1 Hz). However, there is also a marked seasonality in the seismic frequency of peak response, possibly due to seasonal differences in atmospheric conditions and/or vegetation and soil mediation of the atmosphere–ground interaction. The gust–seismic response functions also exhibit a clear dependence on (1) distance from the coast, (2) land cover, (3) topographic complexity and (4) lithology. We propose a generalized methodology to extract wind gust magnitude distributions from seismic networks. Although initial results from this model overestimate the spatial variability in wind gusts as measured by meteorological networks, the analyses described here highlight the potential for new methods to remove wind gust noise from seismic time series and potentially to derive quantitative wind gust estimates from seismic observations.

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Acknowledgements

This research was made possible by funding from National Science Foundation (1540393 and 1565505) and Cornell University’s David R. Atkinson Center for a Sustainable Future (ACSF-sp2279-2016). We are grateful to the work of the NWS in collecting and archiving the ASOS measurements (available from the National Centers for Environmental Information ftp://ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/asos-fivemin/) and to the USArray for their work with the Transportable Array (data available at: http://www.usarray.org/researchers/obs/transportable). The other data sets employed herein are available as follows: Lithology data are obtained from the United States Geologic Survey (https://mrdata.usgs.gov/geology/state/), the 2011 National Land Cover Database is available on https://www.mrlc.gov/nlcd2011.php, and high-resolution elevation data from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Shuttle Radar Topography Mission are available on http://www2.jpl.nasa.gov/srtm/. The comments of two reviewers served to improve this manuscript and are gratefully acknowledged.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA

    F. Letson, W. Hu, L. D. Brown & S. C. Pryor

  2. Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA

    R. J. Barthelmie

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  1. F. Letson
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Letson, F., Barthelmie, R.J., Hu, W. et al. Wind gust quantification using seismic measurements. Nat Hazards 99, 355–377 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-019-03744-8

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