A prototype system for earthquake early warning and alert management in southern Italy

Abstract

The Irpinia Seismic Network (ISNet) is deployed in Southern Apennines along the active fault system responsible for the 1980, November 23, MS 6.9 Campania-Lucania earthquake. It is comprised of 28 stations and covers an area of about 100x70 km2. Each site is equipped with a 1-g full-scale accelerometer and a short-period velocimeter. Thanks to its design characteristics, i.e. the wide dynamic recording range and the high density of stations, the ISNet network is mainly devoted to estimating in real-time the earthquake location and magnitude from low- to high- magnitude events, and to providing ground-motion parameters to get some insights about the ground shaking expected. Moreover, the availability of high-quality data allows studying the source processes related to the seismogenetic structures in the area. The network layout, the data communication system and protocols and the main instrumental features are described in the paper. Most of the data analysis is performed through the Earthworm software package, that also provides the automatic earthquake locations, while custom software has been developed for real-time computation of the source parameters and shaking maps. Technical details about these procedures are given in the article. The data collected at the ISNet stations are available upon request.