Developing an Earthquake Early Warning System for Central Asia: Experiences and Future Perspectives

The seismically active zones of Central Asia contain large, densely populated cities, large hydroelectric power plants and reservoirs. Timely warning of the emergency services of earthquakes is therefore extremely important. For the territory of the Republics of Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, modelling was carried out to assess the applicability of the seismic networks of Kyrgyzstan (ACROSS network) and Uzbekistan for the early warning system. The modelling showed that for most of the territory of Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan an earthquake warning with a reserve of several tens of seconds is possible. Therefore, in 2023, the Central Asian Institute for Applied Geosciences (CAIAG) developed an earthquake early warning system SES (in Kyrgyz - Seismikalyk Eskertuu Sistemasy) based on the networks of ACROSS strong motion seismic stations and the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Uzbekistan. The paper discusses the structure of the system and the principles of its operation, as well as the results of the trial operation of the system. The experience of the system operation has shown its effectiveness for the territory of Kyrgyzstan. The system is able to quickly detect and locate earthquakes in Kyrgyzstan with a magnitude of 3.5-4 and higher. It also reliably detects earthquakes that have occurred outside the network. The SES system is currently being used by the emergency services in Kyrgyzstan.