Distributed Fiber Optic Sensing (DFOS) is transforming the field of seismology with its ability to provide highly accurate and real-time data on seismic activities, including earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, tsunamis, and other geological events. Unlike traditional seismic monitoring systems, which often involve substantial costs and face limitations in sensitivity and geographic coverage, DFOS leverages existing fiber optic infrastructure to create a network of distributed sensors. This innovative approach allows for the continuous monitoring of extensive areas, capturing even the most subtle ground movements with high precision.
Efficient alarm systems are essential for effective seismic monitoring. DFOS employs advanced algorithms and artificial intelligence to analyze detected events, classifying them based on predefined criteria. This intelligent processing ensures that only relevant alerts are sent to operators through their preferred channels, such as user interfaces, SMS, or email, minimizing false alarms and undetected events.
By providing precise and timely information, DFOS supports proactive maintenance and risk mitigation strategies. The ability to customize alerts according to specific needs allows for a tailored approach to monitoring, ensuring the highest level of safety and efficiency.
Listen
The optical fiber is converted into a sensor with thousands of microphones by the interrogation unit, which makes it continuously listen to its surroundings.
Analyze
After analysing the data, the processing unit precisely localizes the information to within a few meters of the different basic events.
Report
Depending on the user’s needs, the system groups the events and only notifies them of the alarms that are relevant to them.
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High-intensity earthquakes are among the natural events that could potentially affect many people, especially in densely populated areas known for intense seismic activity.
Aragon Photonics is actively involved in developing early warning systems for earthquakes based on distributed acoustic sensing, which offers cost and quality advantages over traditional instrumentation.
Land subsidence, especially slow-sinking land subsidence, represents a major challenge for infrastructure and safety in urban areas. In an effort to develop effective early warning systems, Aragon Photonics used its BLAST instrument based on Brillouin Time Domain Analysis (BOTDA) to monitor subsidence in a risk area in Alcalá de Ebro, Spain.
The acquired signals of the HDAS are traces that represent the strain variation along the optical fibre. We accumulate the traces in a waterfall plot, that allows us to analyse the vibration both in time and in space. We use digital image processing techniques in order to enhance the significative patterns of interest, and to reduce the noise.
Then, depending on the application, we apply a number of image analysis techniques using algorithms and mathematical models to detect and recognise patterns. For some use cases, we have developed supervised machine learning models, for other use cases “classic” algorithms give very good results.
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