Abstract

Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS) is emerging as a powerful tool for dense seismic monitoring in complex environments. On Hamburg’s research campus, including areas surrounding large-scale research infrastructure such as the European XFEL and other particle accelerator facilities, DAS is being deployed to investigate local seismicity and anthropogenic noise across a broad frequency range. This 17 km urban DAS installation serves as a testbed for characterizing seismic fields and monitoring infrastructure-related noise, with measurable effects of the ocean microseism on EuXFEL operation—examples of which will be presented in this talk. In parallel, we explore how such data can inform seismic and Newtonian noise modeling for future gravitational wave detectors like the Einstein Telescope. These next-generation observatories aim to extend our observational reach to low-frequency gravitational waves, potentially revealing signals from massive black hole binaries, early-universe processes, or long-lived signals from exotic matter. This talk highlights current deployments, data analysis methods, and the potential of urban fiber networks to advance both accelerator diagnostics and gravitational wave astronomy.