A knowledge-based system for seismological signal understanding

The authors describe the design of SNA (seismic network analyzer), an expert system that models the seismologist´s interpretive behavior. The system architecture, which is based on the blackboard scheme, is reported; results and performance of a prototype implementation of SNA are given and discussed. An advantage of the system is that the integration of knowledge of different kinds guarantees higher sensitivity and robustness to the signal interpretation process. Also, simple and inexpensive numerical computations are sufficient to form an hypothesis for the event and a rough estimate of its features; more refined interpretive tasks can be postponed. The modular structure of the system allows easier maintenance and expandability