High Frequency Decay Parameter (Kappa) for Ahar–Varzaghan Double Earthquakes, Iran (MW 6.5 & 6.3)

The high frequency decay parameter, kappa and its variations in distance is evaluated using 114 three component strong motion records from two strong events in Northwestern Iran. We show that in classical method of estimating kappa, the results are very sensitive to the choices of [Formula: see text] (where spectrum starts to fall) and [Formula: see text] (where spectrum reaches the noise floor) and automated procedures for estimating kappa are likely to lead to a biased estimation. For the present database, we found an obvious concavity in dependency of kappa on distance. The kappa values in distance were regressed to a trilinear shape for which the first line has a zero slope. Based on this trilinear shape the zero distance kappa are 0.043 and 0.026 for horizontal and vertical components, respectively.