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Detection of small-magnitude Earthquakesusing balloon-borne infrasound sensors
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  • Quentin Brissaud,
  • Siddharth Krishnamoorthy,
  • Jennifer Jackson,
  • Daniel Bowman,
  • Attila Komjathy,
  • James Cutts,
  • Jacob Izraelevitz,
  • Zhongwen Zhan,
  • Yan Yang
Quentin Brissaud
NORSAR, NORSAR

Corresponding Author:[email protected]

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Siddharth Krishnamoorthy
NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
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Jennifer Jackson
California Institute of Technology, California Institute of Technology
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Daniel Bowman
Sandia National Laboratories, Sandia National Laboratories
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Attila Komjathy
NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
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James Cutts
NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
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Jacob Izraelevitz
NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
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Zhongwen Zhan
California Institute of Technology, California Institute of Technology
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Yan Yang
California Institute of Technology, California Institute of Technology
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Abstract

The mechanical coupling between a planet and its atmosphere enables the conversion of seismic waves into infrasound waves, i.e. low-frequency pressure perturbations (< 20Hz), which propagate to the upper atmosphere. Since the characteristics of the seismically-induced pressure perturbations are connected to their seismic counterparts, they provide a unique opportunity to investigate the atmospheric and interior structures of a planet or to constrain source properties. However, in Earth’s remote regions, deploying seismic or infrasound networks at the surface can be a difficult task. Stratospheric balloon platforms equipped with pressure sensors have therefore gained interest since they provide a unique and inexpensive way to record pressure signals in the atmosphere with a low noise level. Yet, infrasound observations of Earthquakes on balloon platforms have never been reported in the literature. In this study, we investigate the seismo-acoustic wavefield generated by the aftershocks of the 2019 Ridgecrest sequence and other regional low-magnitude Earthquakes on July 22 and August 9, 2019 using four free-flying balloons equipped with pressure sensors. We observed a strong signal coherence after the largest event between seismic motions at the surface and balloon pressure variations which matches our numerical simulations. A first atmospheric earthquake detection is crucial to demonstrate the viability of this novel technique to monitor infrasound from natural and artificial seismicity on Earth, and the study of seismic activity on planets such as Venus.