In order to study earthquakes in real time, a seismologist American has developed a software in line with the famous SETI @ home is capable of transforming computers connected to the Internet in a vast network of seismic stations.Eventually, the device, called Quake-Catcher Network (NAQ), should improve forecasting of earthquakes, including those of medium intensity.
Mass Calculations
Like other programs for distributed computing, NAQ combines the unused computing power of individual PCs to create a virtual super-computer that can digest the calculations necessary for the real-time analysis of seismic waves that precede and follow a earthquake.This process has already been used to search for extraterrestrial signals, calculating the structure of proteins, evaluate weather patterns, and so on.
A seismograph in the PC
But NAQ goes further, because it makes every PC a seismograph.Indeed, the most recent laptops are equipped with a motion sensor that locks the gramophone hard drives if you fall on the computer. Jesse Lawrence, a professor of geophysics at Stanford University (USA ), has decided to use this sensor to detect the movements of the earth.Its aim is thus to create the network of seismic monitoring the densest and cheapest ever made.
The number compensates quality
These sensors PC are much less sensitive and sophisticated than those that equip specialized seismographs, but Lawrence is counting on their numbers can compensate for their relative inaccuracy."If you have only 2 sensors in an area, you need to have a perfect" says "With 100, 1,000 or even 10,000 sensors - the system becomes much more tolerant of imperfections." Thus, to detect an earthquake through 5 magnitude - a phenomenon that happens more often than is commonly believed in France - NAQ will have a dozen "PC" sensors spread over an area of 900 sq. km.
Soon on your screens
Although some users BOINC platform, which centralizes distributed computing projects, have already made some calculations for NAQ, the program is still in testing. Users should be able to download the complete module (calculation software seismograph ET) before next summer on the official website.