GA-OGS-ARSO Transfrontier CE3RN AdriaArray Seismicity Experiment (GOAT-CASE): results of the first year of data collection and analysis

GeoSphere Austria (GA, formerly ZAMG), the Italian National Institute of Oceanography and Applied Geophysics (OGS) and the Slovenian Environment Agency (ARSO) are the agencies dedicated to real-time seismological monitoring of Austria, north-eastern Italy and Slovenia, in cooperation with the respective civil protection authorities. In 2014, GA (then ZAMG), OGS and ARSO founded the “Central and Eastern Europe Earthquake Research Network” (CE3RN, http://www.ce3rn.eu/) to 1) formally establish the cross-border network, 2) define the rules of conduct for the management, improvement, extension and expansion of the network, 3) improve seismological research in the region and 4) support civil protection activities. As part of CE3RN, GA, OGS and ARSO have adoptd the “Antelope” software package for collecting, archiving, analysing and sharing seismological data.
In 2022, the international AdriaArray experiment was launched, following on from the previously successful AlpArray experiment. AdriaArray is a multinational effort to map the Adriatic plate and its active margins in the central Mediterranean with a dense regional array of seismic stations to understand the causes of active tectonics and volcanic fields in the region. GA, OGS and ARSO are actively involved in the AdriaArray experiment by providing data from their seismic monitoring networks and - in the case of OGS - also by installing and managing dedicated seismic stations. As part of the AdriaArray experiment, several additional seismic stations have been set up in Austria and north-eastern Italy. It is therefore to be expected that the additional seismic stations installed will improve the earthquake localization capabilities of GA, OGS and ARSO. This certainly applies to Austria and north-eastern Italy, but also to Slovenia, as a large part of its seismicity lies on the border with Italy.
The GOAT-CASE experiment aims to quantify the improvement in earthquake localization capability across the entire area. The underlying methodology is to locate earthquakes also using the additional seismic stations and to compare the results. The workload for the detections is distributed among the three partners, while the mapping is done centrally. An attempt will be made to use artificial intelligence to detect earthquakes and compare the results with the standard routines of the agencies.
The AdriaArray experiment is planned for a duration of 3 years starting around mid-2022. In this presentation we will illustrate the results of the first year of the experiment, from 01/07/2022 to 30/06/2023.