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<oai_dc:dc xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:oai_dc="http://www.openarchives.org/OAI/2.0/oai_dc/" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.openarchives.org/OAI/2.0/oai_dc/ http://www.openarchives.org/OAI/2.0/oai_dc.xsd">
  <dc:contributor>David C. Wilson</dc:contributor>
  <dc:contributor>Paul S. Earle</dc:contributor>
  <dc:contributor>William L. Yeck</dc:contributor>
  <dc:contributor>David B. Mason</dc:contributor>
  <dc:contributor>Justin T. Wilgus</dc:contributor>
  <dc:creator>Adam T. Ringler</dc:creator>
  <dc:date>2024</dc:date>
  <dc:description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;span&gt;Intermediate sized earthquakes (≈&lt;/span&gt;&lt;i&gt;M&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span&gt;4–6.5) are often measured using the teleseismic body‐wave magnitude (&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="inline-formula no-formula-id"&gt;⁠𝑚b⁠&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;).&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="inline-formula no-formula-id"&gt;𝑚b&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;measurements are especially critical at the lower end of this range when teleseismic waveform modeling techniques (i.e., moment tensor analysis) are difficult. The U.S. Geological Survey National Earthquake Information Center (NEIC) determines the location and magnitude of all&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;i&gt;M&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;5 and greater earthquakes worldwide within 20&amp;nbsp;min of the rupture time, and therefore accurate&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="inline-formula no-formula-id"&gt;𝑚b&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;magnitude estimates are essential to fulfill its mission. To better understand how network geometry and noise levels affect the global response capabilities, we developed a method to spatially estimate the minimum measurable&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="inline-formula no-formula-id"&gt;𝑚b⁠&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;. To do this, we compare expected&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="inline-formula no-formula-id"&gt;𝑚b&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;amplitudes at every station to the station’s background noise level. We find that using NEIC’s current network geometry and these idealized thresholds, NEIC can potentially estimate&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="inline-formula no-formula-id"&gt;𝑚b&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;magnitudes down to&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;i&gt;M&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;4.5 globally. Low‐latitude regions in the Southern Hemisphere present the biggest opportunity to improve monitoring capabilities. However, logistically they also present the biggest hurdles for network operators. Finally, to test the resiliency of the network we removed the 20 most important stations and found the&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="inline-formula no-formula-id"&gt;𝑚b&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;threshold remains&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="inline-formula no-formula-id"&gt;𝑚b&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;4.5. However, the region where only&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="inline-formula no-formula-id"&gt;𝑚b&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;4.5 and greater can be estimated increases and is again restricted to the Southern Hemisphere.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</dc:description>
  <dc:format>application/pdf</dc:format>
  <dc:identifier>10.1785/0120230246</dc:identifier>
  <dc:language>en</dc:language>
  <dc:publisher>Seismological Society of America</dc:publisher>
  <dc:title>Noise constraints on global body‐wave measurement thresholds</dc:title>
  <dc:type>article</dc:type>
</oai_dc:dc>