Abstract. We evaluate the performance of the low-cost seismic sensor Raspberry Shake to identify and monitor rockfall activity in alpine environments. The test area is a slope adjacent to the Great Aletsch Glacier in the Swiss Alps, i.e. the Moosfluh deep-seated instability, which has recently undergone a critical acceleration phase. A local seismic network composed of three Raspberry Shake was deployed starting from May 2017 in order to record rockfall activity and its relation with the progressive rock-slope degradation potentially leading to a large rock-slope failure. Here we present a first assessment of the seismic data acquired from our network after a monitoring period of 1 year. We show that our network performed well during the whole duration of the experiment, including the winter period in severe alpine conditions, and that the seismic data acquired allowed us to clearly discriminate between rockfalls and other events. This work also provides general information on the potential use of such low-cost sensors in environmental seismology.
We evaluate the performance of the low-cost seismic sensors Raspberry Shake (RS) to identify and monitor rock fall activity in alpine environments. The test area is a slope adjacent to the Great Aletsch glacier in the Swiss Alps, i.e. the Moosfluh deep-seated instability, which is undergoing an acceleration phase since the late summer 2016. A local seismic 10 network composed of three RS seismometers was deployed starting from May 2017, in order to record rock fall activity and its relation with the progressive rock slope degradation potentially leading to a large rock slope failure. Here we present a first assessment of the seismic data acquired from RS sensors after a monitoring period of 1-year. A webcam was installed on the opposite side of the active slope, acquiring images every 10 minutes to validate the occurrence and identify rock falls as well as their location and approximate size. Despite seismic data were collected mainly to identify rock fall phenomena, 15 other event types were recorded during the monitoring period. Thus, this work provides also general insights on the potential use of low cost sensors in environmental seismology investigations.
This supplementary material provides further information on the Raspberry Shake and on its use to monitor rock fall phenomena in a test area adjacent to the Great Aletsch glacier, Swiss Alps. The Raspberry Shake seismograph is an all-in-one, IoT plug-and-go solution for seismological applications. Developed by OSOP, S.A. in Panamá, the Raspberry Shake integrates the geophone sensors, 24-bit digitizers, period-extension circuits and computer into a single enclosure. The output is digital and the analog-to-digital path is as follows: the analog signal passes from the 4.5 Hz 380-400 Ohm geophones to an analog system where it is amplified and period-extended from the geophone's natural frequency of 4.5 Hz down to 2 seconds, thus providing improved signal bandwidth at lower frequenciesessential for local, regional and teleseismic earthquake detection. The amplified and improved analog signal is then digitized with a 24-bit analog-to-digitizer (ADC) converter at 800 sps. Later, the signal is downsampled to 200 sps and finally to 100 sps as it passes through a series of anti-aliasing firmware and software routines. The clip level is +/-8,388,608 counts (24-bits) and ~22 mm/s peak-to-peak from 0.1 to 10 Hz. The minimum detection threshold is estimated at 0.03 µm/ s RMS from 1 to 20 Hz at 100 sps where the minimum detectable level is considered to be 10 dB above the noise RMS. Dynamic range is the full-scale sinusoid RMS over the noise RMS in dB. The effective bits, or those noise-free bits commonly referred to as "Dynamic range" or "RMS-to-RMS noise", for the entire sensor, analog and ADC chain is estimated to be 21 bits (126 dB) from 1 to 20 Hz at 100 sps. The instrument self-noise is, therefore, ideal for local, regional and teleseismic earthquake detection. As a scientific-grade instrument, the Raspberry Shake is compatible with all standards in earthquake seismology: Data is transmitted in from a native SEEDlink server running on a Debian OS in miniSEED format and can be ingested directly into Antelope, Earlybird, Earthworm, GISMO, ObsPy, SEISAN, SeisComP(3,Pro) and all other mainstream data processing software packages without modification. Instrument response files are provides in dataless, inventory-xml, pz and RESP formats. All station and channel naming follow FDSN guidelines (Site the SEED manual).
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