VIVAERO Seismic data can identify aircraft by type Instruments typically used to detect the ground motion of earthquakes can also be used to identify the type of aircraft flying far overhead, research by University of Alaska Fairbanks scientists shows. That's because aircraft sound waves also shake the ground, though to a much lesser extent. An aircraft's type—a Cessna 185 Skywagon , for example—can be determined by analyzing a seismic spectrogram to find the aircraft's frequency imprint from the sound waves it creates and then matching it with data from a catalog of aircraft frequency patterns. "Aircraft signals are a lot higher frequency than anything else that's prominent in the spectrum that seismometers are recording," said graduate student researcher Bella Seppi , who is leading the research. " Earthquake signals and other signals that people are typically looking for are a lot lower frequency, so aircraft signals are pretty obvious most of th...
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