Site Map/Alternate Navigation Skip to Main Content

125 Years of Sound Science, serving society

Fall 2014 Instrumentation Class

Conference Room Projector Instructions

Thursdays, 12:30-2PM, BSL conference Room
Instructor: Horst Rademacher

Course Description:

In today's networked world only few seismologists still go out into the field to set up seismometers and seismic networks. Most researchers receive the seismic data they need by downloading them from large data centers like the Berkeley Seismological Laboratory (BSL), IRIS or Germany's GFZ. In many cases, when working with such downloads, very little thought is given to the quality of the data. That is defined not only by their digital quality, but even more so by the instruments used and their set-up in the field, in vaults or in observatories. Hence many seismologists have lost immediate contact with and knowledge about the very tool which provides them with seismograms, the seismometer itself and its immediate periphery. In this course we will explain in detail how modern feedback seismometers and accelerometers work, derive the necessary mathematical formulae to handle the seismic data and show how seismic field stations shall be set-up and operated properly. We will also introduce the students to specialty sensors, like borehole and ocean-bottom seismometers. The course includes a field trip to a seismic station operating within BSL's Berkeley Digital Seismic Network.

For questions, contact Horst Rademacher horst@berkeley.edu.The course is listed as EPS 290, and has a CCN of 19416.

Draft Schedule

Date Topic
September 4
Intro into course: General remarks on geophysical measurement techniques and instruments, their purpose and their limitations. What is the seismic band?
September 11
The problem of measuring seismic waves: How to measure movements without a fixed reference frame. Basic physical realization of seismometers
September 18
History of seismic instrumentation
September 25
The concept of seismic broadband sensors with props. The various realizations of today's broadband sensors
October 2
Digitizers and how they interact with seismic sensors. Basics of digital filtering, deconvolution. The problem of timing
October 9
Equation of motion of seismic sensors and its solution. Transfer functions, meta data and computing true ground motion
October 16
The concept of dynamic range - Velocity sensors vs. Acclerometers
October 23
GPS and seismic sensors: Major contribution from Ingrid Johanson
October 30
Testing and calibration of seismic sensors. Do Seismometer age?
November 6
Borehole sensors
November 13
Catching seismic waves underwater: Ocean Bottom Seismometers
November 20
Basic considerations of constructing seismic stations, vault and field. Basics of designing and operating seismic networks and arrays. With a contribution from Bob Uhrhammer: History of Berkeley Network
November 27
THANKSGIVING HOLIDAY, NO CLASS
December 4
Field trip to Byerly Vault
December 11
Recent advances in seismic instrumentation: Electrochemical sensors, MEMS sensors, rotational seismometers, with a contribution from Qingkai Kong on MEMS