Measuring and Monitoring Seismic Instrumentation
Seismological Research Letters (SRL) is soliciting papers for a Focus Section on Measuring and Monitoring Seismic Instrumentation.
Inertial broadband seismometers, digitizers and other modern monitoring tools are now often deployed in the field for long time intervals to measure earthquakes, explosions and other signals of interest. They allow high quality measurements over broad ranges of frequency, while also resolving them with very high resolution even under rough field conditions. Modern feedback seismometers, in particular, are precision measuring tools in the same league as other instruments designed for use in clean, stable laboratory environments.
Documenting and maintaining an understanding of the precision of the measurements in terms of the international system of units (SI) and tracking it over the lifetime of a broadband seismometer or other instrumentation requires carefully crafted calibration procedures. Instrument manufacturers deploy a variety of individual techniques to calibrate their wares before they are sold. Network operators deploy clever procedures to remotely monitor the performance of their instruments during their lifetime in the field. Currently, an effort is also underway to link the calibration of seismic sensors to fundamental SI constants and thereby introduce seismometers to standardized procedures common in the world of metrology.
We invite all those interested in seismic instrumentation and calibration techniques to contribute their ideas, procedures and results to this focus section of SRL, including manufacturers, users and metrologists. Topics include calibration techniques for broadband seismometers and other associated instrumentation such as digitizers, infrasound sensors or deformation measuring devices. Evaluating the precision and uncertainties of these instruments, their susceptibility to environmental conditions, the impact of installation methods and procedures, and the extent to which the uncertainty in their calibration affects the models used for the interpretation of seismic data are also of interest.
Guest Editors:
- Thomas Bruns, Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (Thomas.Bruns@ptb.de)
- Margaret Hellweg, University of California-Berkeley (retired) (Hellweg@berkeley.edu)
- John Merchant, Sandia National Lab (Bjmerch@sandia.gov)
Deadline for Submission: 2 March 2026
Articles accepted to this SRL Focus Section on Measuring and Monitoring Seismic Instrumentation will be published online soon after acceptance and collectively in print in the September 2026 issue. Papers will be reviewed as they are received and published online prior to the print issue.
In preparing manuscripts, authors must follow the SRL author guidelines at www.seismosoc.org/publications/srl-authorsinfo/. Papers must be submitted via the SRL online submission system (SRL online submission system (www.editorialmanager.
Please address questions about scientific issues to the guest editors or SRL Editor-in-Chief Allison Bent at srleditor@seismosoc.org. Submission-related questions should be addressed to the SRL Editorial Office at srl@seismosoc.org.