Crowdsourced Early Warning: The Android Earthquake Alert System
UPSC Relevance
Prelims: Science and Technology (Sensors - Accelerometer, Seismology - P-waves, S-waves), Disaster Management (Early Warning Systems), IT & Computers (Crowdsourcing).
Mains:
GS Paper 1: Important Geophysical phenomena such as earthquakes.
GS Paper 3: Science and Technology- developments and their applications and effects in everyday life; Disaster and disaster management.
Key Highlights from the News
Google's new study suggests that Android smartphones worldwide are helping to provide earthquake alerts.
Google's Android Earthquake Alert (AEA) System works by using accelerometer sensors in phones.
These sensors detect the faster P-waves that precede an earthquake.
These signals, combined with data from other nearby phones (crowdsources), confirm it's an earthquake, then provide an early warning to people before the slower, more damaging S-waves arrive.
The system was able to provide warnings 10 to 60 seconds before major earthquakes in Turkey-Syria, the Philippines, and Nepal.
This system has increased the number of people with access to earthquake warning systems tenfold.
However, the system has limitations in accurately calculating earthquake intensity and sometimes issuing warnings after the shaking has begun.
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