Current situation and challenges for the Ukrainian seismic network

In February 2022, the Ukrainian seismic network already faced multiple critical issues and its modernization was needed. The war exacerbated all existing issues and accelerated the need for a fundamental reorganization and modernization. In this presentation we will report on the network’s status and draft reconstruction plans. As of January 5th 2023, the Ukrainian seismic network has been damaged by the war as follows:

• partial or complete destruction of facilities and infrastructure caused by power and internet outages;
• inability to serve stations;
• complete destruction of Zmiinyi Island (Snake Island) infrastructure where one seismograph was installed;
• internal and external migration of people involved in the maintenance of stations;
• delayed standardization of existing seismic stations.

While relatively quiescent, the Ukrainian territory needs an operational seismic network for safety and research purposes. Ukraine hosts a great number of industrial and agricultural facilities critical for the world’s food supply, as well as four nuclear power plants with 15 reactors are located. Seismicity in Ukraine is aligned along the Alpide seismic orogenic belt across the southern and western part of the territory. In addition, significant intraplate earthquakes are recorded in Central and Eastern Ukraine where heavy industries and iron ore mining are concentrated.

The Ukrainian seismic network is currently  divided into three autonomous branches that make up the seismic network of the Institute of Geophysics of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (NAS): Carpathian, Crimean and Central. Unfortunately, these branches were not combined into one unified national network. The base station for observations in Central Ukraine is the IRIS KIEV seismic station (IU, Global Seismograph Network), which is operated by the Institute of Geophysics with support from the US Geological Survey Seismological Laboratory (Albuquerque).

The main goals of modernizing the network must focus on: access to seismological data; long-term data accessibility; calculation of seismic risk; geodynamic and seismic monitoring; surveillance of hazardous facilities. A modernized seismic network is not only a mean of surveillance, but also as a fundamental infrastructure for academic geophysical research in Ukraine.

The integration and data exchange in the European and international community require certificated, industry-standardized seismic instruments and up-to-date digital infrastructure. The seismic network of the Institute of Geophysics of the NAS is equipped with outdated and non-certificated seismic instruments that degrade instrumental data and hamper the exchange of observational materials and scientific analyses with the global community.

The first steps for the modernization of the Ukrainian seismic network started in 2019 with the initiation of a unified platform to process data. For this purpose, the industry-standard SeisComP seismic network software was adopted. In Nov. 2022, we purchased four low-cost Raspberry Shake Seismographs (RS3D) that will be tested in different setting across the territory of Ukraine. Deployment of budget seismometers is a stop-gap measure for both data collection and education in Ukraine.