Articles | Volume 26, issue 5
https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-26-2227-2026
© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Seismo-acoustic and GNSS observations of a record-breaking Black Sea storm: repurposing geophysical sensors for environmental monitoring
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- Final revised paper (published on 13 May 2026)
- Supplement to the final revised paper
- Preprint (discussion started on 25 Jun 2025)
Interactive discussion
Status: closed
Comment types: AC – author | RC – referee | CC – community | EC – editor | CEC – chief editor
| : Report abuse
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RC1: 'Comment on egusphere-2025-1842', Anonymous Referee #1, 29 Jul 2025
- AC1: 'Reply on RC1', Laura Petrescu, 08 Aug 2025
- AC3: 'Response to Reviews', Laura Petrescu, 20 Nov 2025
- AC4: 'Response to Reviews', Laura Petrescu, 20 Nov 2025
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RC2: 'Comment on egusphere-2025-1842', Anonymous Referee #2, 10 Oct 2025
- AC2: 'Response to Reviews', Laura Petrescu, 20 Nov 2025
Peer review completion
AR – Author's response | RR – Referee report | ED – Editor decision | EF – Editorial file upload
ED: Reconsider after major revisions (further review by editor and referees) (27 Nov 2025) by Philip Ward
AR by Laura Petrescu on behalf of the Authors (12 Dec 2025)
Author's response
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ED: Referee Nomination & Report Request started (18 Dec 2025) by Philip Ward
RR by Anonymous Referee #2 (29 Jan 2026)
RR by Anonymous Referee #3 (10 Feb 2026)
ED: Reconsider after major revisions (further review by editor and referees) (11 Feb 2026) by Philip Ward
AR by Laura Petrescu on behalf of the Authors (11 Mar 2026)
Author's response
Author's tracked changes
Manuscript
ED: Reconsider after major revisions (further review by editor and referees) (16 Mar 2026) by Philip Ward
ED: Referee Nomination & Report Request started (17 Mar 2026) by Philip Ward
RR by Anonymous Referee #2 (30 Mar 2026)
ED: Publish subject to minor revisions (review by editor) (31 Mar 2026) by Philip Ward
AR by Laura Petrescu on behalf of the Authors (09 Apr 2026)
Author's response
Author's tracked changes
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ED: Publish as is (13 Apr 2026) by Philip Ward
AR by Laura Petrescu on behalf of the Authors (22 Apr 2026)
Manuscript
This manuscript gathers together seismic, infrasound, GNSS and meteorological data for a rainfall episode in Romania in late August 2024. The authors claim that this approach can lead to a “holistic understanding of storm evolution”; however, I can not see in the manuscript which is the contribution of putting together these different kind of datasets to such a better understanding. In my opinion, the manuscript only shows that strong rainfall episodes can be identified in seismic, infrasound and GNSS data, a fact that is widely known.
In my opinion, this work do not deserve publication in a high-rated journal as NHESS: my most important concerns have to do with:
1) The real contribution of analyzing different dataset to a better understanding of the storm evolution is not really explained
2) I think that having access to direct measurements of meteorological parameters is an essential point for this kind of studies . In this contribution, the detailed seismic or infrasonic data is compared to 1-hour long estimations of rainfall derived from large-scale models. Why not to compare each seismic/infrasound station with the closer meteorological site??
3) The authors state in the introduction that the precipitation totals reached values of 120-220 mm, corresponding to an exceptional episode. However, the total precipitation graphics in Figures 4 and 5 show maximum hourly values not reaching 3.5 mm, for a total amount of precipitation of about 30-40 mm, values that would correspond to a modest rainfall episode. I guess that this probably arise from the use of a general precipitation model, but I think that it do not makes sense to discuss the correlation of different datasets to non-representative meteorological variables.
4) Meteorological data is reduced to the ERAS global precipitation model. The possible contribution of wind to seismic and infrasound noise or the relationship between humidity and GNSS-derived water content is not commented at all.
5) The correlation between different parameters is only discussed qualitatively all along the manuscript, and in some cases it is unclear. I have the feeling that all along the discussion, only those results leading to “positive” correlations are commented, ignoring those showing contradictions. Some examples include:
6) The authors claim that using K-means clustering has been a “key aspect of the analysis”. However, it is difficult for me to see which are these aspects. In Fig. 9, I would say that the spectrogram contains much more information that the clustering graph. Besides, no explanation on how and why the parameters of this clustering have been chosen
7) Concerning seismic data, during years a discussion has been open between those relating the microseismic peak amplitudes to air pressure or oceanic waves. However, it is now widely accepted that the amplitude of the microseismic peak is related to oceanic waves. On contrary, it is less clear which is the contribution of open waters and coastal zones to the primary and secondary peaks. If the amplitudes of the microseismic peak is discussed, this is the subject that should considered; Figures 6 and 7 just document that during stormy days, the microseismic noise is higher; this is a well-knonw feature, which could be observed in most of the seismic stations distributed worldwide
8) Concerning infrasound data, no explanation of which is the utility of parameters as spectral centroid, flux etc. is provided. Non-specialist readers need to know if these are parameters routinely calculated to discuss specific characteristics of the signal. The close relationship between infrasound and seismic data, widely documented my many contributions, is not commented at all.
9) The authors do not seem to be aware that the infrasound recordings related to lightning are in fact the acoustic waves generated by the associated thunders. Different works, including some of those included in the manuscript references list, have showed that the acoustic waves generated by thunders are recorded systematically by nearby seismic stations.
10) If seismic and infrasound data is used, the contribution of other sources of vibration and/or sound should be considered; which is the contribution of anthropogenic noise to each of the stations?
In my opinion, if the manuscript goal is to prove that the integration of multiple sensors has a clear utility to study storm evolution, much work is needed, including a better analysis of the existing data and a modelling effort. The work done by the authors can be useful to show that a strong storm can be detected not only by meteorological instruments but also by other sensors. However, this is something that is well-known by researches in each of the different fields and, in my opinion, does not deserve publication in NHESS.