A regional near-surface high frequency spectral attenuation (kappa) model for northwestern Turkey

One approach to model the high-frequency attenuation of spectral amplitudes of S-waves is to express the observed exponential decay in terms of Kappa (κ) factor [1]. Kappa is a significant parameter used for identifying the high-frequency attenuation behavior of ground motions as well as one of the key parameters for stochastic strong ground motion simulation method. As of now, there is not a systematic investigation of the Kappa parameter based on the recently-compiled Turkish ground motions. In this study, we examine a strong ground motion dataset from Northwestern Turkey with varying source properties, site classes and epicentral distances. We manually compute κ from the S-wave portion of each record and study both horizontal and vertical kappa values. We use traditional regression techniques to describe the (potential) relationships between kappa and selected independent variables such as the site class, distance from the source or magnitude of the event. A linear effect of magnitude on kappa is not found statistically significant for the database studied herein. We express the initial findings of a regional κ model for Northwestern Turkey as a function of site class and epicentral distances. Single station analyses at selected sites confirm the regional model. Finally, we present stochastic strong motion simulations of past events in the region using the proposed kappa model. Regardless of the magnitude, source-to-site distance and local site conditions at the stations, the high-frequency spectral decay is simulated effectively at all stations considered.