Seismic Noise Recorded by Telecommunication Fiber Optics Reveals the Impact of COVID-19 Measures on Human Activity
Quantifying the response of human activity to different COVID-19 measures may serve as a potential way to evaluate the effectiveness of the measures and optimize them. Recent studies reported that seismic noise reduction caused by limited human activity due to the COVID-19 lockdown had been observed...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Seismological Society of America
2021-06-01
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| Series: | The Seismic Record |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1785/0320210008 |
| _version_ | 1797359312920641536 |
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| author | Junzhu Shen Tieyuan Zhu |
| author_facet | Junzhu Shen Tieyuan Zhu |
| author_sort | Junzhu Shen |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Quantifying the response of human activity to different COVID-19 measures may serve as a potential way to evaluate the effectiveness of the measures and optimize them. Recent studies reported that seismic noise reduction caused by limited human activity due to the COVID-19 lockdown had been observed with seismometers. However, it is difficult for the current seismic infrastructure in urban cities to characterize spatiotemporal seismic noise during the post-COVID-19 lockdown, because of their sparse distribution. Here, we show key connections between progressive COVID-19 measures and spatiotemporal seismic noise changes recorded by a distributed acoustic sensing (DAS) array deployed in State College, Pennsylvania. We first show a spatiotemporal seismic noise reduction (up to 90%) corresponding to reduced human activity in different city blocks during the stay-at-home period. We also show partial noise recovery corresponding to increased road traffic and industrial machinery in phase yellow and phase green of the lockdown. Nonrecovery seismic noise in the 0.01–10 Hz band suggests the low level of pedestrian movement during phase yellow and phase green. According to a linear correlation between Google mobility change and seismic noise change, we emphasize that DAS recordings using city-wide fiber optics could provide a way for quantifying the impact of COVID-19 measures on human activity in different blocks. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-08T15:16:35Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-c3fca0e7ad88467c8d13c628c6de3cef |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2694-4006 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-08T15:16:35Z |
| publishDate | 2021-06-01 |
| publisher | Seismological Society of America |
| record_format | Article |
| series | The Seismic Record |
| spelling | doaj.art-c3fca0e7ad88467c8d13c628c6de3cef2024-01-10T11:57:02ZengSeismological Society of AmericaThe Seismic Record2694-40062021-06-0111465510.1785/032021000821008Seismic Noise Recorded by Telecommunication Fiber Optics Reveals the Impact of COVID-19 Measures on Human ActivityJunzhu Shen0https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1593-8133Tieyuan Zhu1https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3172-8240Department of Geosciences, The Pennsylvania State University, State College, Pennsylvania, U.S.A.Department of Geosciences, The Pennsylvania State University, State College, Pennsylvania, U.S.A.Quantifying the response of human activity to different COVID-19 measures may serve as a potential way to evaluate the effectiveness of the measures and optimize them. Recent studies reported that seismic noise reduction caused by limited human activity due to the COVID-19 lockdown had been observed with seismometers. However, it is difficult for the current seismic infrastructure in urban cities to characterize spatiotemporal seismic noise during the post-COVID-19 lockdown, because of their sparse distribution. Here, we show key connections between progressive COVID-19 measures and spatiotemporal seismic noise changes recorded by a distributed acoustic sensing (DAS) array deployed in State College, Pennsylvania. We first show a spatiotemporal seismic noise reduction (up to 90%) corresponding to reduced human activity in different city blocks during the stay-at-home period. We also show partial noise recovery corresponding to increased road traffic and industrial machinery in phase yellow and phase green of the lockdown. Nonrecovery seismic noise in the 0.01–10 Hz band suggests the low level of pedestrian movement during phase yellow and phase green. According to a linear correlation between Google mobility change and seismic noise change, we emphasize that DAS recordings using city-wide fiber optics could provide a way for quantifying the impact of COVID-19 measures on human activity in different blocks.https://doi.org/10.1785/0320210008 |
| spellingShingle | Junzhu Shen Tieyuan Zhu Seismic Noise Recorded by Telecommunication Fiber Optics Reveals the Impact of COVID-19 Measures on Human Activity The Seismic Record |
| title | Seismic Noise Recorded by Telecommunication Fiber Optics Reveals the Impact of COVID-19 Measures on Human Activity |
| title_full | Seismic Noise Recorded by Telecommunication Fiber Optics Reveals the Impact of COVID-19 Measures on Human Activity |
| title_fullStr | Seismic Noise Recorded by Telecommunication Fiber Optics Reveals the Impact of COVID-19 Measures on Human Activity |
| title_full_unstemmed | Seismic Noise Recorded by Telecommunication Fiber Optics Reveals the Impact of COVID-19 Measures on Human Activity |
| title_short | Seismic Noise Recorded by Telecommunication Fiber Optics Reveals the Impact of COVID-19 Measures on Human Activity |
| title_sort | seismic noise recorded by telecommunication fiber optics reveals the impact of covid 19 measures on human activity |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1785/0320210008 |
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