Low-frequency centroid-moment-tensor inversion from superconducting-gravimeter data: The effect of seismic attenuation

After the 2010 Maule and 2011 Tohoku earthquakes the spheroidal modes up to 1 mHz were clearly registered by the Global Geodynamic Project (GGP) network of superconducting gravimeters (SG). Fundamental parameters in synthetic calculations of the signals are the quality factors of the modes. We study the role of their uncertainties in the centroid-moment-tensor (CMT) inversions. First, we have inverted the SG data from selected GGP stations to jointly determine the quality factors of these normal modes and the three low-frequency CMT components, M-rr, (K-theta theta - M-phi phi)/2 and M-theta phi, that generate the observed SG signal. We have used several-days-long records to minimize the trade-off between the quality factors and the CMT but it was not eliminated completely. We have also inverted each record separately to get error estimates of the obtained parameters. Consequently, we have employed the GGP records of 60-h lengths for several published modal-quality-factor sets and inverted only the same three CMT components. The obtained CMT tensors are close to the solution from the joint Q-CMT inversion of longer records and resulting variability of the CMT components is smaller than differences among routine agency solutions. Reliable low-frequency CMT components can thus be obtained for any quality factors from the studied sets. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.