Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, Vol. 106, No. 2, pp. 755–765, April 2016, doi: 10.

1785/0120150143

An Earthquake Early Warning System in Fujian, China

by Hongcai Zhang, Xing Jin, Yongxiang Wei, Jun Li, Lanchi Kang,
Shicheng Wang, Lingzhu Huang, and Peiqing Yu

Abstract As one of the most economically developed and seismically active re-
gions of China, Fujian faces a threat from severe earthquakes, particularly those that
occur in Taiwan. Following the worldwide construction of an earthquake early warn-
ing (EEW) system, we developed an EEW system in Fujian in 2009 and began online
testing in November 2012. During this testing, our EEW system successfully proc-
essed several earthquakes in both the Fujian region and Taiwan. The results showed
that, for inland events (Fujian region), the first alarm was generated 6:4
0:97 s
after the first station was triggered, with a location error of 4:6
4:0 km and mag-
nitude estimation error of 0:6
0:5. For offshore events (Taiwan), the first alarm
was generated 13:7
2:9 s after the first station was triggered, with a location error
of 30:6
31:4 km and magnitude estimation error of −0:2
0:4. Online testing
allows us to continuously improve and perfect our system. In 2017, our system will
officially begin providing EEW information to the public in the Fujian region. In
addition to the preceding, the architecture, key algorithms, software design, and on-
line testing results are included in this article to provide readers with a comprehen-
sive understanding of our EEW system.

Introduction
The effectiveness of earthquake early warning (EEW) sys-
tems to mitigate earthquake hazards and reduce casualties
from earthquakes, especially major ones, has been fully dem-
onstrated in Japan and Mexico (Gerardo et al., 2009; Osamu
et al., 2009; Doi, 2011). In Mexico, earthquake alerts from the
seismic alert system are transmitted to Mexico City more than
60 s prior to the destructive waves hitting the region due to the
12 digitally strong motion field stations along the Coast of
Guerrero. In Japan, more than 1000 nationwide uniform dis-
tribution stations provide basic monitoring data in real time for
the EEW system. Both inland and offshore earthquakes are
observed and warnings are generated if the maximum seismic
intensity, on land, is greater than five lower [approximately
VII for modified Mercalli intensity (MMI)]. Depending on
their location, individuals will have anywhere from a few sec-
onds to dozens of seconds to react. According to a report on
the performance of the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA)
EEW system for the Mw 9.0 Tohoku earthquake in 2011
(Hoshiba et al. 2011; Hoshiba and Ozaki, 2013), an EEW
was issued more than 15 s prior to the start of strong ground
shaking in the Tohoku district, which was relatively close to
the epicenter. This is a good example of the successful use of
an EEW system. Several countries are developing their own
EEW systems and will begin providing services to people
in the near future (Allen and Kanamori, 2003; Wu and Kana-
mori, 2005; Maren et al., 2007; Alcik et al., 2009; Allen et al.,
2009; Fleming et al., 2009; Hsiao et al., 2009; Iannaccone
et al., 2009; Wen et al., 2009; Zollo et al., 2009, 2014; Allen,
2011; Allen and Ziv, 2011; Kuyuk et al., 2014; Chen et al.,
2015; Colombelli et al., 2015; Pazos et al., 2015; Picozzi,
Emolo, et al., 2015; Picozzi, Zollo, et al., 2015).
In China, following the devastating earthquake in Wen-
chuan in 2008, local governments have been pushing to es-
tablish robust EEW systems in seismically active areas (Peng
et al., 2011; Jin, Wei, et al., 2013; Jin, Zhang, et al., 2013).
Furthermore, significant work has been done to maintain
EEW systems across the nation. A nationwide EEW system
that covers the Beijing capital region, north–south seismic
belt, southeastern coastal areas, and northern Xinjiang area,
the four main seismic zones will be built in China over the
next few years. Currently, the China Earthquake Administra-
tion (CEA) is a leader in progress on the design and dem-
onstration of this system. As part of this plan to build a
nationwide EEW system, we established an experimental
EEW system in Fujian (along the southeastern coast of China,
with Taiwan located directly across the Taiwan strait) in 2009
with support from the Ministry of Science and Technology of
China (MIST). Online testing of our EEW system began in
November 2012 and it now provides earthquake warnings in
the form of SMS text messages to employees of the Earth-
quake Administration of Fujian (FJEA). In cooperation with
railway departments, test information from the EEW system
reaches the railway control center in real time. Furthermore,
if it is an emergency, trains can be automatically slowed

755

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 756 H. Zhang, X. Jin, Y. Wei, J. Li, L. Kang, S. Wang, L. Huang, and P. Yu

29°N

28°N

27°N
N

N
W

A
26°N Fuzhou

JI
S

FU
25°N Taibei

N
WA
24°N

Figure 1. Structure of the earthquake early warning (EEW) sys-

tem in the Fujian region. The color version of this figure is available
only in the electronic edition.
down or stopped, which is the responsibility of the railway
sector. According to our schedule, this EEW system will be-
gin providing information to the public in the Fujian region
in 2017.
System Design
The following modules are indispensable to accurately
estimate earthquake parameters and generate warnings,
based on limited signals, in a timely manner. These modules
include the transmission of real-time monitoring data, real-
time phase picking and event detection, real-time earthquake
location, estimation of magnitude, prediction of seismic in-
tensity, and evaluation of affected area and release of warn-
ing information (Fig. 1).
Transmission of Real-Time Monitoring Data
Figure 2 shows the distribution of seismic monitoring
stations in and around the Fujian region. According to this
figure, there are 125 sites across Fujian with an average dis-
tance of 31 km between them. A total of 41 stations (trian-
gles) are equipped with velocity meters, 40 stations (dots) are
equipped with acceleration meters, and 44 stations (both tri-
angles and dots) are equipped with both velocity and accel-
eration meters. All of these stations are connected to the
processing center of FJEA in Fuzhou by dedicated optical
fiber cables provided by China Telecom. According to an
actual test, in which two synchronous Global Position Sys-
tem clocks were set on both seismic stations and the process-
ing center, the average data delay is about 1.3 s. This includes
data packaging (1 s at present) and transmission. In 2013, we
signed a swap agreement with Academia Sinica in Taiwan.
Presently, we receive real-time monitoring data from 16 sta-
tions (squares) through the Internet. Of these stations,
12 are located on the main island of Taiwan (Fig. 2). The
latency for telemetry data is about 5.0–8.0 s depending on
TAI
0 km 100 km
85 monitoring stations
23°N
84 strong motion stations
2 seismic array
stations of neighboring provinces
16 exchange stations with Taiwan
22°N
116°E 117°E 118°E 119°E 120°E 121°E 122°E
Figure 2. Distribution of seismic monitoring stations in and
around the Fujian region. The color version of this figure is avail-
able only in the electronic edition.
network quality. Additionally, we receive real-time moni-
toring data from 25 stations in neighboring provinces from
the China Earthquake Networks Center through a private
industrial network. The latency for the transfer of these data
is about 2.0 s.
Seismic Phase Picking and Event Detection
Based on research by Ma (2008), a robust and real-time
seismic phase picking module was developed to identify the
initial arrival of a continuous waveform stream. To obtain
reliable output, a short-term average/long-term average log-
arithm and Akaike information criterion were combined.
These picks are then transmitted to a phase association
module to determine whether or not the event is new. If
more than three stations are triggered and interstation dis-
tance is less than 60 km (double the average distance of our
seismic monitoring network) and triggering time is reason-
able, which is a rather loose constraint, an event will be
declared. Abnormal picks are eliminated if they are not
adequately consistent with the majority of observations dur-
ing the process. If these picks are not associated with an
existing event, then a new event ID will be generated
and the remainder of the process will begin. Otherwise, lo-
cation and estimation of magnitude are updated for existing
events (Fig. 3).
Real-Time Earthquake Location
Because limited information on the EEW process is
available, we must adopt a special method for real-time

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 An Earthquake Early Warning System in Fujian, China
Figure 3. Flow chart of EEW system processing. The color
version of this figure is available only in the electronic edition.
earthquake location. In addition, we must constantly update
location results as more stations are triggered, which is very
different from convention. Several real-time earthquake lo-
cation algorithms have been proposed and used for EEW
systems around the globe, including the arrival time order
method (Rosenberger, 2009), not-yet-arrived method (Horiu-
chi et al., 2005; Satriano et al., 2008), BΔ method (Odaka
et al., 2003), two-station subarray method (Rydelek and Pujol,
2004), etc. These methods work well in dense seismic net-
works, but may not be suitable for the sparse networks
in China.
After considering the actual seismic network of China
for our EEW system, we proposed a new approach to real-
time earthquake location (Jin et al., 2012b). When only
one station is triggered, the EEW location process is initiated
and the potential epicenter is set to the centroid of the Vor-
onoi region of that particular station at a fixed focal depth of
10 km. This depth is the typical focal depth in the Fujian
region. If a second station is triggered, then we reset the po-
tential epicenter to the contact area of the Voronoi cells of the
two stations and determine the location of the epicenter, also
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at a focal depth of 10 km, by a grid search. If three or four
stations are triggered, then we can determine the epicenter by
solving travel-time equations (Zhang et al., 2011). Focal
depth must also be specified when this method is applied
to three stations. As time passes and more information be-
comes available, the earthquake location is revised in a
timely manner whenever there is a new pick. When more
than five stations are triggered, the Hyposat location
method (Schweitzer, 2001) is included to obtain more re-
liable location results.
Estimation of Magnitude
Research results have fully proven that, due to the lim-
ited waveform acquired, it is almost impossible to accurately
determine the magnitude of an earthquake during the EEW
process (Wu et al., 1998, 2006; Allen and Kanamori, 2003;
Zollo et al., 2006; Olivieri and Schweitzer, 2007; Tsang et al.,
2007; Festa et al., 2008; Murphy and Nielsen, 2009). Several
special EEW magnitude estimation methods have been pro-
posed and performed well in actual use, even though they
remain physically controversial (Ellsworth and Beroza,
1995; Kilb and Gomberg, 1999). According to our study
(Zhang et al., 2012), the estimation of magnitude is more
difficult in China than in other countries if certain existing
methods are applied, such as the τc method or Pd method,
due to relatively sparse stations. Therefore, we proposed a
slightly revised approach to the estimation of magnitude in
real time (Jin et al., 2012a).
We start magnitude calculations just 3 s after the first
station is triggered. Vertical peak displacement amplitude is
used to estimate magnitude. However, we reset peak ampli-
tude in a timely manner, which means peak amplitudes are
measured over a moving time window (maximum of 10 s)
from the P onset, so that magnitude estimation results can
change accordingly. The formula to calculate earthquake
magnitude is
EQ-TARGET;temp:intralink-;;313;295 M  ai logPK i   bi log10 R  10  ci ;
in which PK i represents vertical peak displacement, R rep-
resents epicentral distance, and ai , bi , and ci are coeffi-
cients.
When two or more stations are triggered, we use the
averages of magnitude estimation results of all stations so
that EEW magnitudes ultimately cover catalog magnitudes.
Because earthquake magnitude may be underestimated if
only peak displacement amplitude is used when a major
earthquake occurs (Horiuchi et al., 2009), we introduced
seismic intensity into EEW magnitude estimation and pro-
posed an intensity magnitude scale when an earthquake
with a magnitude of greater than 6.0 occurs (H. C. Zhang
et al., unpublished manuscript, 2015). Seismic intensity at-
tenuates at greater distances from the epicenter during an
earthquake. Therefore, we revised earthquake magnitude
based on seismic intensities measured at different sites
 758
using the ground-motion prediction equation, but no spatial
smoothing was used. Based on the results of offline testing
(120 KiK-net events with magnitude ranging from 4.0 to
7.2), the intensity magnitude scale becomes saturated at
higher magnitudes (> 7:0) compared with the former scale,
even though differences in magnitude estimations are much
larger for minor to moderate earthquakes (H. C. Zhang
et al., unpublished manuscript, 2015). In conclusion, the
intensity magnitude scale is suitable for our EEW system.
Prediction of Seismic Intensity and Evaluation of
Affected Area
Using an instrumental seismic intensity algorithm pro-
posed by Jin, Zhang, et al. (2013), our EEW system calculates
seismic intensity in real time. Similar to the instrumental seis-
mic intensity calculation method of the JMA, peak amplitude,
spectrum, and duration are aspects of calculations, which is
vastly different compared with previous algorithms used in
China. Considering the situation in China, we made some
adjustments to the calculation (e.g., a new flat band-pass filter
of 0.3–3.0 Hz). The duration time was also changed to 0.5 s to
obtain more stable effective peak acceleration.
Analysis showed a consistency between calculated seis-
mic intensities and intensities observed on site. In other
words, the algorithm was suitable to evaluate seismic inten-
sity. Code to calculate instrumental seismic intensity calcu-
lation was created by Fujian based on this algorithm, which
was the first and only one of its kind in China. Since its in-
ception, it has had a broad impact on the country. Because
the approach for predicting seismic intensity is similar to that
of estimating magnitude, it will not be repeated here. Using
the ground-motion prediction equation, which includes mag-
nitude estimation and earthquake location results, we are
able to estimate the most dangerous regions (seismic inten-
sity greater than VI on the Chinese intensity scale) and those
most likely to be affected (seismic intensity greater than III
on the Chinese intensity scale), and then warn people who
live in these regions. Seismic intensities calculated from
those stations triggered were also used to calibrate the attenu-
ation relationship. It should be noted that seismic intensity
attenuation was taken from several previous studies (Wang
et al., 2000; Jin et al., 2008; Cai et al., 2009; Ding et al.,
2011) to find the most suitable for the Fujian region.
At present, we are unable to acquire details of rupture
length and/or direction in real time. Only a point source is
considered for all events, but we adopt a “maximum estima-
tion” strategy when evaluating dangerous areas. Using the
statistical formula proposed by Wells and Coppersmith
(1994), rupture length is first calculated based on estimated
magnitude. Following this, the measure of distance in the
ground-motion prediction equation is defined as the shortest
distance from this rupture length, with no distinguishable di-
rection or rupture pattern. This may lead to overestimates of
real seismic intensity for some areas, but the most dangerous
areas will not be overlooked.
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H. Zhang, X. Jin, Y. Wei, J. Li, L. Kang, S. Wang, L. Huang, and P. Yu
Release of Warning Information
The key to determining the success or failure of an
EEW system lies in the release of warning information. Cur-
rently, a variety of methods to warn thousands of people
within a short period of time are being tested. These meth-
ods include SMS text messages, mobile apps, Weibo (social
media, similar to Twitter), etc. These tests will provide
basic data on the response speeds of different approaches.
In addition, they will help determine the quickest and most
robust way to transmit information. At present, about 480
employees of FJEA receive SMS text messages from us be-
cause this method is easy to implement. Unfortunately, the
timing is not good enough. According to the results of an
actual test, it takes 100 s to send one message to all of these
employees. Mobile apps for Android and iOS, TV notifica-
tions, special reception terminals, and other methods are
still being tested and will be adopted in the near future. Ac-
cording to our plan, earthquake early warning information
will be readily available to close to 37.5 million people liv-
ing in Fujian by 2017.
Software Development
Our EEW processing software was developed in 2009
and online testing began in November 2012. After continu-
ous improvements and perfections, the software is now
fundamentally stable. As a result, we began providing earth-
quake warnings to employees of the FJEA in January 2015.
The software was written in Java, thus it is platform indepen-
dent and works on multiple platforms, such as Windows,
Linux, Mac OS, etc. Three interfaces were created to meet
the requirements of different applications.
Processing Interface
The processing interface displays all of the output gen-
erated by the EEW software (Fig. 4). This interface allows
access to almost all useful information while debugging the
software. For developers, this is vital to understanding the
specific process in case of a false alarm. It also helps perfect
related algorithms. A map with circles is shown in the center
of the interface to intuitively display processing results. Re-
garding the Chinese seismic intensity scale, people indoors
feel and notice considerable shaking during an earthquake in
an intensity III (III for MMI) zone, especially on the upper
floors of buildings. In an intensity VI (V for MMI) zone,
poorly designed structures may be damaged. Thus, we use
these two circles to represent the area affected and area pos-
sibly damaged, respectively.
Warning Release Interface
Compared with the processing interface, less content is
shown on the warning release interface. This interface is
mainly used to show published earthquake warnings to pro-
fessional users (Fig. 5). On the left side, a tree list shows all
 An Earthquake Early Warning System in Fujian, China 759

Figure 4. Our EEW system’s processing interface. The color version of this figure is available only in the electronic edition.

Figure 5. Our EEW system’s warning release interface. The color version of this figure is available only in the electronic edition.

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 760
Figure 6. Our EEW system’s user display interface. The color version of this figure is available only in the electronic edition.
published events on record. Users can access processing re-
sults according to event ID, which is quite intuitive should a
user wish to access such information. During our research,
four information release grades were determined according
to estimated magnitude and predicted seismic intensity at the
epicenter, and then warnings were sent to various terminals
according to these four grades (Table 1). This is directly dis-
played in two graphs in the lower section.
User Display Interface
When an earthquake warning is produced, it is sent to all
user displays within a short period of time. Only a user dis-
play interface is required to receive a warning (Fig. 6). In
addition, users can set a specific location, for example, where
they live, as well as minimum magnitude and minimum seis-
mic intensity so that warnings released meet their actual
Table 1
Our Earthquake Early Warning (EEW) System’s Four
Information Release Grades
Expected Seismic
Grades Estimated Magnitude Intensity
1 > 5:5 >6
2 4.5–5.4 5–6
3 3.0–4.4 4–5
4 < 3:0 <3
FJEA, Earthquake Administration of Fujian.
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needs. An alarm sounds on a user’s computer when all condi-
tions are met so that the user can take appropriate emergency
action. Finally, the user display interface can be used for pub-
lic training and disaster drills.
System Performance
Constant improvements have been made to our EEW
system since it began operations in September 2012. During
this time, the system has successfully dealt with several
events, mainly in the Fujian region and Taiwan, and gener-
ated accurate output in a timely manner. Currently, we focus
on the processing performance of the system; there are no
minimum magnitude and/or location error restrictions on
system outputs. In other words, results are generated by our
system as long as seismic phases are picked and meet related
calculation and judging criteria. Because of this, more than
two-thirds of events detected are artificial explosions. How-
ever, these false events are excluded through the use of mag-
nitude–intensity criteria. System output is only sent to the
EEW release module when both magnitude and instrumental
intensity are greater than 3.0. In this article, we analyze the
system output for 165 natural earthquakes (83 inland and 82
Publish Range
offshore) in 2014 (Figs. 7 and 8).
All users Normally, three to five stations were triggered before the
Special users first alert was released. Epicenter error was 4:6
4:0 km
FJEA staff
Developers
when an earthquake occurred inland. However, for offshore
events, epicenter error was 30:6
31:4 km. In terms of the
estimation of magnitude, the estimation error for inland
 An Earthquake Early Warning System in Fujian, China
29°N
28°N EEW system output
FJEA catalog
27°N 2.0
3.0
4.0
5.0
26°N 6.0
25°N
24°N
23°N
22°N N=165
114°E 115°E 116°E 117°E 118°E 119°E 120°E 121°E
Figure 7. Our EEW system’s 2014 processing results. Circles
represent EEW system output, boxes represent Earthquake Admin-
istration of Fujian (FJEA) catalog result, and symbol size represents
magnitude. The color version of this figure is available only in the
electronic edition.
events (Fujian region) was 0:6
0:5 during the first alert
compared with the FJEA catalog magnitude. Additionally,
the estimation error was −0:2
0:4 for events in Taiwan.
The main reason for deviations in estimations of larger
magnitudes for events can be explained by our calculation
formula being derived from historical events with a magni-
tude of greater than 4.0. Moreover, events with a small mag-
nitude may not apply. According to statistical results, the
first reports of inland and offshore earthquakes were re-
leased at 6:4
0:97 and 13:7
2:9 s (13:15
9:17 and
20:1
7:6 s after the earthquakes occurred, respectively).
It is worth mentioning that no false alarms were gener-
ated during this period. However, two events in Taiwan, with
magnitudes greater than 4.0, were missed due to a long delay
in the transfer of data (more than 700 s) as a result of an
unstable network. To showcase the capacity of this system,
we will take a closer look at an event in the Fujian region and
an event in Taiwan.
Example Events
M w 4.8 Earthquake in Xianyou
On 4 September 2013, an M w 4.8 earthquake occurred
in Xianyou. It was the largest earthquake in the Fujian region
over the previous five years. The epicenter was located at
118.75° E and 25.63° N at a focal depth of 8 km. Figure 9
shows the processing results of our EEW system. These re-
sults indicate that the system generated two alerts for this
event. The first alert was generated only 7.5 s after the first
station was triggered, 8.6 s after the earthquake occurred,
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when trigger information of the third station was observed.
The estimated epicenter was 118.76° E and 25.63° N, the
focal depth was 11 km, and the estimated magnitude was 5.2,
which were very close to the final manual results.
In the initial report, location error and magnitude esti-
mation error were 1 km and 0:4, respectively. Also, the
blind zone radius was about 30 km. An earthquake warning
was sent immediately to all test users in the form of SMS
text messages. According to the current update scheme,
alert results are updated if magnitude estimation changes by
more than 0.2 or the location changes by more than 10 km.
Therefore, updated estimates were sent 4 s later and a sec-
ond earthquake warning was released. In this warning, the
epicenter did not change but the estimated magnitude was
updated to 4.6, which was −0:2 lower than the manual
result.
122°E 123°E
M w 6.7 Earthquake in Hualian in 2013
As some may know, Taiwan is one of the most seismi-
cally active regions in the world. Since Fujian is located
across the Taiwan Strait from Taiwan, every destructive
earthquake that occurs in Taiwan may affect places in Fujian.
Although some earthquakes may not cause damage, people
who live in high-rise buildings can feel the shaking and will
wonder about the location of earthquake. Thus, the timely
release of earthquake warnings to people in Fujian has im-
portant and realistic implications. By exchanging real-time
seismic monitoring data with Academia Sinica in Taiwan,
we are able to release earthquake warnings several seconds
before the S wavefront and surface wave reach the Fujian
region. The M w 6.7 earthquake in Hualian in 2013 (epicenter
located at 121.56° E and 23.51° N) was a good example
of this.
As shown in Figure 10, our EEW system generated two
warnings. The first was released 15.8 s after the first station
was triggered, or approximately 18.3 s after the earthquake
occurred. The estimated epicenter was located at 121.38° E
and 23.56° N and the estimated magnitude was 5.7, which
was 1.0 lower than the final estimation. The S wavefront had
yet to travel beyond Taiwan when this information was re-
leased. Most coastal cities in Fujian had at least 40 s before
experiencing significant shaking. Our system then reset its
estimated parameters and released a second warning 27 s
later. It was at this time that the earthquake estimate changed
slightly (121.38° E, 23.60° N) and the estimation of magni-
tude was updated to 7.1, 0.4 higher than the final estimate.
Based on this information, coastal cities in Fujian had more
than 10 s to prepare for the earthquake.
Conclusions
With support from the MIST and CEA, an experimental
EEW system was developed in Fujian, China. After consid-
ering the actual situation in China, we proposed several
real-time processing algorithms during the development
 762 H. Zhang, X. Jin, Y. Wei, J. Li, L. Kang, S. Wang, L. Huang, and P. Yu

(a) 6 (b) 6
N=83 N=82
5 5

EEW Magnitude
EEW Magnitude
4 4

3 3

2 2

1
1:

1:
1 1

0 0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 0 1 2 3 4 5 6
Catalog Magnitude Catalog Magnitude

(c) 50 (d) 50

Location Error (km)

Location Error (km)

40 40
30 30
20 20
10 10
0 0
0 20 40 60 80 0 20 40 60 80
No. No.

(e) (f)
20 20
Time (s)
Time (s)

10 10

0 0
0 20 40 60 80 0 20 40 60 80
No. No.

Figure 8. Statistics of EEW system output deviations compared with FJEA catalog. (a), (c), (e) Magnitude estimation distribution, location
errors, and first alert release time, separately for 83 inland earthquakes and (b), (d), (f) corresponding results for 82 offshore events. The color
version of this figure is available only in the electronic edition.

of our software. These algorithms included real-time earth-
quake location, rapid estimation of magnitude, and the
calculation of instrumental seismic intensity. To make it
convenient for users and developers to understand the
processing results of our system, we designed three inter-
faces so that they could access required information. Online
testing of our EEW system began in Fujian, Beijing, and
Gansu in 2013. Gansu is located in western China and
has high seismic activity. Through this online testing, we
gradually improved the system and perfected related pro-
cessing algorithms. As a result, our system is able to gen-
erate stable output only a few seconds following the initial
triggering of a monitoring station and immediately send an
earthquake warning to all users. According to our plan, we
will begin providing information to the public in Fujian in
2017 through various methods, such as SMS text messages,
Weibo, TV notifications, and special smart phone apps. Dur-
ing the 13th Five-Year Plan period of China, close to 4000
new and professional seismic monitoring stations and more
than 10,000 low-cost sensors will be built. In addition, a ro-
bust nationwide EEW system that can provide accurate and
timely information will be established. Our system will play
an important role in this project.
Data and Resources
The earthquake events information mentioned in this
study were listed on the website of the Earthquake Adminis-
tration of Fujian Province, China Earthquake Administration
(CEA) (http://www.fjea.gov.cn/sbml.aspx?EarthType=2, last
accessed June 2015).
Acknowledgments
Our work was supported by the National Sci-Tech Support Plan, Min-
istry of Science and Technology of China (Number 2014BAK03B02), Science
for Earthquake Resilience (Number XH161302Y). Also, this study used
Generic Mapping Tools (GMT; Wessel and Smith, 1998) software programs
and they are gratefully acknowledged. We also would like to show gratitude to

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 An Earthquake Early Warning System in Fujian, China 763

Figure 9. Processing results for the M w 4.8 earthquake in Xianyou. The color version of this figure is available only in the electronic edition.

Figure 10. Processing results for the M w 6.7 earthquake in Hualian. The color version of this figure is available only in the electronic edition.

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 764
the Associate Editor Matthew Gerstenberger as well as three anonymous re-
viewers for their comments and suggestions that allowed us to significantly
improve our manuscript.
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