Phase Picking Beyond Local Distances: Where Waveform Filtering Still Matters for Deep Learning Models

Waveform filtering is a standard step in traditional seismic phase picking but often receives little attention in deep learning workflows, where models are typically trained on raw or minimally processed waveforms. Although this strategy performs well for local events, we show that performance can degrade substantially at regional distances. To address this limitation, we introduce two ways to incorporate multiband-filtered waveforms into deep learning phase pickers, focusing here on P-arrival picking. The stacking approach concatenates filtered inputs along the channel dimension, whereas the branching approach processes each frequency band through a dedicated network branch before feature fusion. Both approaches can substantially improve performance across epicentral distances of 0°–20°, but their effectiveness depends strongly on the selected frequency bands. Tests with multiple filter banks show that filter-bank design should be treated as part of model optimization rather than as a fixed preprocessing choice. Gradient-weighted Class Activation Mapping analysis of the branching model indicates that band importance varies among waveform samples and across training realizations, with only a weak overall preference for the 0.25–0.5 Hz band. These results show that no single filter band is consistently optimal and demonstrate that explicit feature engineering remains valuable for robust deep learning-based seismic phase picking.