TRACKING HURRICANE IDA THROUGH UNIVERSITY PARK, PA USING UNDERGROUND FIBER OPTIC CABLES

This study seeks to determine if distributed acoustic sensing (DAS) interrogated with underground fiber-optic cables could be a viable method of tracking and evaluating hurricanes. This study posits that by examining seismic data before, during, and after a major storm, the seismic frequencies induced by the storm may be identified. The Fiber Optic foR Environtmental Sensing (FORESEE) array under University Park, Pennsylvania was used to collect DAS data during Hurricane Ida between 30 August 2021 and 1 September 2021. We analyzed raw waveform data and their spectrograms. We found strongest DAS energy during the storm. Individual station spectrograms showed an increase in frequency during the storms associated with Hurricane Ida in the upper frequency range. However, the spectrogram spanning the entire studied time shows an increase in seismic activity that correlates to the storms in the low frequency range. Further studies are recommended to examine this difference in affected frequency range, as well as examining more storms to provide more data showing whether DAS is a viable hurricane tracking method.