LIGO e-Lab ideas
From Pirates@Home
There are many interesting questions you can ask and try to answer using the data now available from LIGO. The best investigation is one you think of yourself to answer your own questions, but if you don't have any immediate ideas as to what to investigate then you might find something below which sparks your interest.
Don't feel that you have to answer the exact question listed here; Instead, think of it as a starting point for developing the question which most interests you!
Contents |
Earthquakes
- What happens to the tiltmeters when there is an earthquake?
- Is there any effect on weather due to earthquakes?
- Do the components of an earthquake at different frequencies all arrive at LIGO at the same time?
- Do all earthquakes all have the same duration?
- Do earthquakes look exactly alike at different stations (LVEA, EX, EY)?
- Is there any effect on the frequency or magnitude of earthquakes due to weather?
- Did anything interesting happen on your birthday? If so, can you reconstruct the story of what happened (as a detective reconstructs a crime from the crime scene)?
- How long after a big earthquake does something show up at LIGO?
- What is the smallest earthquake LIGO can detect?
- What is the smallest earthquake which can knock the LIGO interferometers out of lock?
- Is there any effect on the frequency or magnitude of earthquakes due to weather?
- How does the distance to an earthquake affect the magnitude of the signal detected at Hanford?
- How does the depth of an earthquake affect the magnitude of the signal detected at Hanford?
- Can you use the data from LIGO to determine the speed of seismic waves? Is the speed constant?
- Can you use the data from LIGO to determine the distance to an earthquake?
- Can you use the data from LIGO to determine the direction to an earthquake?
- What exactly does the GDS-EARTHQUAKE channel monitor?
- Can you use LIGO data to determine whether P and S waves are transverse or longitudinal?
- Can you use the relative strength of longitudinal waves to infer the direction to an earthquake?
Seismic Activity (in general)
- Does the weather affect the seismic activity at LIGO in ways other than just earthquakes?
- Was anything interesting happening on your birthday?
- What are the major differences between the seismic signals in different frequency bands?
- Does the seismic signal vary with time in a periodic way (daily, weekly, monthly, yearly)?
- Are the signals from the accelerometers related to the signals from the seismometers? If so, how?
- Are the signals from the tile meters related to the signals from the seismometers? If so, how?
- Are the signals from all the seismometers at the site exactly the same, or are there differences which you can categorize?
Magnetometers
- Are there any interesting patterns in the magnetometer signals? If so, can you explain them?
- Is there any correlation between the magnetometer signals and rain or other weather sensors?
- Can you see evidence of magnetic storms in the data? How frequent are they? How long do they last? How strong are they?
Weather
- Do the wind sensors always agree on the direction of the wind? When?
- Is there a day/night pattern to when it rains?
- What part of the day has the strongest winds? The weakest?
- Is there a pattern between barometric pressure and rain?
- Are there periodic patterns in the weather data? If so, what are the periods?
Tilt sensors
- Are there any periodic patterns in tilt sensor data? If so, what are the periods, and what are the likely causes?
- How do the tilt sensors react to an earthquake? Is there any difference depending on the direction, distance, or depth of an earthquake?
What Else?
Anybody who has an idea for a LIGO investigation can add it to this list! You might discuss it first with your classmates and teacher. You might even find that your idea can be turned into more than a single question.
