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TOKYO: Machine learning and gravity signals could rapidly detect big earthquakes

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3 years ago

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TOKYO: Massive earthquakes don’t just move the ground — they make speed-of-light adjustments to Earth’s gravitational field. Now, researchers have trained computers to identify these tiny gravitational signals, demonstrating how the signals can be used to mark the location and size of a strong quake almost instantaneously.

It’s a first step to creating a very early warning system for the planet’s most powerful quakes, scientists report May 11 in Nature.

Such a system could help solve a thorny problem in seismology: how to quickly pin down the true magnitude of a massive quake immediately after it happens, says Andrea Licciardi, a geophysicist at the Université Côte d’Azur in Nice, France. Without that ability, it’s much harder to swiftly and effectively issue hazard warnings that could save lives.

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As large earthquakes rupture, the shaking and shuddering sends seismic waves through the ground that appear as large wiggles on seismometers. But current seismic wave–based detection methods notoriously have difficulty distinguishing between, say, a magnitude 7.5 and magnitude 9 quake in the few seconds following such an event.

That’s because the initial estimations of magnitude are based on the height of seismic waves called P waves, which are the first to arrive at monitoring stations. Yet for the strongest quakes, those initial P wave amplitudes max out, making quakes of different magnitudes hard to tell apart.

But seismic waves aren’t the earliest signs of a quake. All of that mass moving around in a big earthquake also changes the density of the rocks at different locations. Those shifts in density translate to tiny changes in Earth’s gravitational field, producing “elastogravity” waves that travel through the ground at the speed of light — even faster than seismic waves.

Such signals were once thought to be too tiny to detect, says seismologist Martin Vallée of the Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris, who was not involved in the new study. Then in 2017, Vallée and his colleagues were the first to report seeing these elastogravity signals in seismic station data. Those findings proved that “you have a window in between the start of the earthquake and the time at which you receive the [seismic] waves,” Vallée says.

But researchers still pondered over how to turn these elastogravity signals into an effective early warning system. Because gravity wiggles are tiny, they are difficult to distinguish from background noise in seismic data.

When scientists looked retroactively, they found that only six mega-earthquakes in the last 30 years have generated identifiable elastogravity signals, including the magnitude 9 Tohoku-Oki earthquake in 2011 that produced a devastating tsunami that flooded two nuclear power plants in Fukushima, Japan (SN: 3/16/11). (A P wave–based initial estimate of that quake’s magnitude was 7.9.)

That’s where computers can come in, Licciardi says. He and his colleagues created PEGSNet, a machine learning network designed to identify “Prompt ElastoGravity Signals.” The researchers trained the machines on a combination of real seismic data collected in Japan and 500,000 simulated gravity signals for earthquakes in the same region.

The synthetic gravity data are essential for the training, Licciardi says, because the real data are so scarce, and the machine learning model requires enough input to be able to find patterns in the data.

Once trained, the computers were then given a test: Track the origin and evolution of the 2011 Tohoku quake as though it were happening in real time. The result was promising, Licciardi says. The algorithm was able to accurately identify both the magnitude and location of the quake five to 10 seconds earlier than other methods.

This study is a proof of concept and hopefully the basis for a prototype of an early warning system, Licciardi says. “Right now, it’s tailored to work … in Japan. We want to build something that can work in other areas” known for powerful quakes, including Chile and Alaska. Eventually, the hope is to build one system that can work globally.

The results show that PEGSNet has the potential to be a powerful tool for early earthquake warnings, particularly when used alongside other earthquake-detection tools, Vallée says.

Still, more work needs to be done. For one thing, the algorithm was trained to look for a single point for an earthquake’s origin, which is a reasonable approximation if you’re far away. But close-up, the origin of a quake no longer looks like a point, it’s actually a larger region that has ruptured. If scientists want an accurate estimate of where a rupture happened in the future, the machines need to look for regions, not points, Vallée adds.

Bigger advances could come in the future as researchers develop much more sensitive instruments that can detect even tinier quake-caused perturbations to Earth’s gravitational field while filtering out other sources of background noise that might obscure the signals. Earth, Vallée says, is a very noisy environment, from its oceans to its atmosphere.

“It’s a bit the same as the challenge that physicists face when they try to observe gravitational waves,” Vallée says. These ripples in spacetime, triggered by colossal cosmic collisions, are a very different type of gravity-driven wave (SN: 2/11/16). But gravitational wave signals are also dwarfed by Earth’s noisiness — in this case, microtremors in the ground.

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SAN FRANCISCO: Indian-Origin Founder Unveils Wearable Device That Records Every Moment Of Your Life

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1 year ago

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October 17, 2024

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SAN FRANCISCO: Advait Paliwal, an Indian-origin entrepreneur, has recently introduced a wearable AI device called Iris, designed to provide users with “infinite memory.” According to Paliwal, the device captures “pictures every minute,” which are stored either on the device or in the cloud, allowing users to preserve life’s small moments and recognize patterns often overlooked.

In a series of tweets, Mr Paliwal, who is based in San Francisco, explained that Iris not only organises the photos into a timeline but also uses AI to generate captions and help users recall forgotten details. Additionally, the device features a “focus mode,” which detects when the wearer is distracted and offers reminders to refocus.

Mr. Paliwal shared that the design of Iris is inspired by the evil eye symbol. He developed the device over the summer at the Augmentation Lab in Cambridge, part of a two-month AI and hardware talent accelerator program. After the program, Mr Paliwal presented Iris to over 250 attendees at the MIT Media Lab, where he received positive feedback, with many expressing interest in owning the device.

Highlighting its potential, Mr Paliwal suggested that Iris could offer safety and health benefits, such as aiding doctors in understanding patients’ daily habits or ensuring workplace safety compliance. In elderly care, the device could help caregivers monitor patients without being intrusive.

However, after Mr Paliwal shared his post on X (formerly Twitter), reactions were mixed. While some users expressed excitement, others raised privacy concerns. One person commented, “It’s an interesting concept, but I wouldn’t want to interact with someone wearing this, taking a photo every minute.” Paliwal responded by pointing out that people are already “constantly taking mental photos.”

 Others were more enthusiastic, with one user noting, “I’ve been searching for a device like this for years! A picture every minute should be enough if it archives, organizes, labels, and retrieves them.” Another user praised the concept, saying, “Love the idea. The design and name are perfect. Great work!”

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TEXAS: Meet Gopi Thotakura, Indian Who Will Soon Go To The Edge Of Outer Space

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2 years ago

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April 18, 2024

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TEXAS: In an unprecedented leap towards the stars, pilot Gopichand Thotakura is set to become the first Indian to venture into space as a tourist. Selected as part of the elite crew for Blue Origin’s New Shephard-25 (NS-25) mission, Mr Thotakura will make a journey beyond the Earth’s atmosphere along with five other candidates.

Gopichand Thotakura, an entrepreneur and pilot, joins a distinguished lineup of 31 candidates who have flown beyond the Karman line, the boundary between Earth’s atmosphere and outer space.

A connoisseur of the skies since his youth, Mr Thotakura’s passion for flight saw him defy conventional norms, learning to pilot aircraft before mastering the art of driving. To further his passion, he graduated from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University with a Bachelor of Science in Aeronautical Science.

Describing him, Blue Origins wrote, “Gopi is a pilot and aviator who learned how to fly before he could drive. Gopi pilots bush, aerobatic, and seaplanes, as well as gliders and hot air balloons, and has served as an international medical jet pilot. A lifelong traveler, his most recent adventure took him to the summit of Mt. Kilimanjaro.”

Born in Vijayawada, the 30-year-old currently runs Preserve Life Corp, a global center for holistic wellness and applied health located near Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport

Each member of the NS-25 mission will carry a postcard on behalf of Blue Origin’s foundation, Club for the Future, symbolizing the collective dreams and aspirations of young minds worldwide.

From an environmental standpoint, the NS-25 mission heralds a new era of sustainability in space exploration.

“Nearly 99% of New Shepard’s dry mass is reused, including the booster, capsule, engine, landing gear, and parachutes. New Shepard’s engine is fueled by highly efficient liquid oxygen and hydrogen. During flight, the only byproduct is water vapor with no carbon emissions,” Blue Origins said in their statement.

The launch date for the mission is yet to be announced.

The mission also includes former Air Force Captain Ed Dwight, who was selected by US President John F Kennedy in 1961 as the country’s first Black astronaut candidate but was never granted the opportunity to fly to space.

Blue Origin has carried out six crewed flights — some passengers were paying customers and others were guests — since July 2021, when CEO Jeff Bezos himself took part in the first.

The company is also developing a heavy rocket for commercial purposes called New Glenn, with the maiden flight planned for next year.

 This rocket, which measures 98 meters (320 feet) high, is designed to carry payloads of as much as 45 metric tons into low Earth orbit.

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WASHINGTON: Who Is Aroh Barjatya, Indian-Origin Researcher Who Led Recent NASA Mission

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2 years ago

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April 15, 2024

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WASHINGTON: Aroh Barjatya, an India-born researcher, led NASA’s mission that launched sounding rockets during the recent total solar eclipse.

The US space agency launched three sounding rockets during the total solar eclipse on April 8 to study what happens to the Earth’s upper atmosphere when sunlight dims momentarily over a part of the planet.

Who Is Aroh Barjatya?

A professor of engineering physics, Aroh Barjatya directs the Space and Atmospheric Instrumentation Lab at the Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Florida.

Born to a chemical engineer, Ashok Kumar Barjatya, and his wife Rajeshwari, Aroh Barjatya went to schools across India, including in Patalganga near Mumbai, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Pilani, and Solapur.

He went on to get a degree in electronics engineering from Solapur’s Walchand Institute of Technology.

In 2021, he moved to the US for a master’s degree in electrical engineering at Utah State University. He later did his PhD in spacecraft instrumentation from the same university.

“In addition to leading an externally funded research enterprise, as a tenured faculty I have mentored and engaged young minds through inquiry-based learning tactics, created a new area of concentration within the Engineering Physics programme at ERAU… My mission is to advance the state of the art in space research and education and to inspire the next generation of space engineers and scientists,” he wrote on his LinkedIn profile.

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