Ubiquitous monitoring of infrasound for early detection of events relevant to disaster

A terrestrial event resulting in natural disaster often radiates infrasound when it occurs. Similar phenomenon can be observed in extreme weathers as well. Infrasound travels through the air approximately at the speed of sound and it is faster than traveling of physical kinetic energy which may sometimes bring about a disastrous impact on human lives. Therefore, early detection and source localization of such events are promising for hazard prevention and damage mitigation. To achieve this purpose, coverage of the land is important in terms of celerity and spatial precision, but facilities suitable for monitoring infrasound are not common. In Japan, one monitoring station, IS30, is in operation under Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) and a few microbalrometer arrays are experimentally set up by Japan Weather Association (JWA) on some parts of Japanese coast. A group of University of Hawaii developed an app for capturing infrasound on iOS devices, and the captured data can be utilized for furthe...