Beyond conventional DAS systems

DAS (Distributed Acoustic Sensing) systems have become widely used tools in Geophysics and Seismology. While most DAS users are familiar with the basic principles of the technology and the typical performance of commercially available interrogators, there is often a limited understanding of the fundamental performance limits of DAS systems.

In this talk, I will review the foundational principles of DAS and will provide insight into the physical limitations of conventional technology. By exploring these constraints and strategies to overcome them, I will introduce two innovative systems currently under development in my lab that demonstrate significantly different capabilities compared to standard DAS systems.

The first system achieves centimeter-scale gauge lengths over a sensing range of approximately 1 km. The second system, while offering conventional performance (meter-scale resolution over tens of kilometers), eliminates 1/f instrumental noise entirely, making it well-suited for very long-term monitoring of processes with timescales ranging from days to months.