Application of the Huang-Hilbert transform and natural time to the analysis of seismic electric signal activities.

The Huang method is applied to Seismic Electric Signal (SES) activities in order to decompose them into their components, named Intrinsic Mode Functions (IMFs). We study which of these components contribute to the basic characteristics of the signal. The Hilbert transform is then applied to the IMFs in order to determine their instantaneous amplitudes. The results are compared with those obtained from the analysis in a new time domain termed natural time, after having subtracted the magnetotelluric background from the original signal. It is shown that these instantaneous amplitudes, when combined with the natural time analysis, can be used for the distinction of SES from artificial noises.