Summary: A seismometer was buried 40 m from EY to take advantage of strong attenuation of the tilt signal relative to the acceleration signal from distant sources. Seismometers located outside the buildings may be useful in reducing problems associated with tilt.
Our buildings are tilted by wind. Our seismometers do not discriminate between this tilt and acceleration (like a pendulum), so wind-induced tilt produces spurious control signals that can make it difficult to lock and maintain lock. A tilt sensor can be used to discriminate between tilt and acceleration, but we may also be able to discriminate between the two by taking advantage of source differences in the band below 0.5 Hz, where tilt generates the largest spurious acceleration signals. The tilt in this band is mainly generated locally by the wind pressure against the walls, while the acceleration signal is mainly generated by ocean waves and other distant sources.
While the seismometers are in the far field for most low frequency accelerations, they are in the near field for building-generated tilt (wavelengths at 0.1 Hz are about 50 km). To take advantage of the rapid attenuation with distance in the near-field, I buried an STS-2 seismometer in a meter deep hole I dug 40 m from EY (Figure 1). Figures 2 and 3 show a comparison of the buried seismometer to the SEI seismometer on the ground inside the EY station. During the low wind period the spectra look virtually identical below 0.5 Hz and the coherence is high because the sources are mostly distant and the wavelengths are large. During the high wind period, the buried seismometer doesn’t change that much (there is some change in the microseismic peak because high/low wind were about 24 hours apart), but the building seismometer shows a huge signal from tilt. The coherence in windy conditions is low because the tilt is highly attenuated 40 m from the building. Figure 4 shows spectra for higher wind, 15-35 MPH.
Of course the external seismometer would not detect real building accelerations due to the wind. But if the unwanted tilt signal dominates over the wanted wind acceleration signal, a seismometer outside the building may be useful, and I think that this is the case below about 0.5 Hz.
I note that I first tried this in the beam tube enclosure tens of meters from EY, but found that the wind tilts the beam tube enclosure almost as much as the building (but not coherently), supporting a hypothesis that aspect ratio is the important variable. Also, Jeff points out that, if we insulate the buried seismometer well (and I did not) we might even be able to do better than the building seismometers with their current insulation during even low-wind periods. Figure 5 is like Figure 2 except that the signal from the stage 1 Trilliums is included.
Interesting data! I'm fascinated by the observation that at 25 mph, the horz. spectra don't match at any frequency. unfortunately, this makes it seem quite problematic to try and use the data in realtime from the outside sensors, since you have to figure out at what freq. they are telling you something useful, and at what frequency they are not. Certainly at 0.5 Hz, the slab sensors are the ones to use and I suspect that at 0.05 Hz one should believe the outdoor sensor, but in between? Several years ago, in response to an (incorrect) estimate of newtonian noise from wind-eddies, various suggestions of shrouds, fairings, shorter buildings, trees, berms, etc. were floated and dismissed. any evolution of this thinking? this data seems to imply that if we put a wind block 40 m from the building, and kept the wind off the building, we'd be in better shape. Sadly, short of a giant pile of tumble-weeds, I don't see any practical way to achieve this. It certainly bolsters Krishna's assertion that the wind-tilts are local to the buildings.
Yes, but we more often have to deal with the 10-20 MPH range, and I think its clear that the burried seismometer is better for that in the 0.05-0.5 range. For higher wind speeds, I would explore the tilt-acceleration cross over by substituting a burried seismometer for building seimometers and see to what wind speed the burried seismometer is an improvement.