Starting with descriptions of rotational seismology, areas of interest and historical field measurements, the fundamental requirements for rotational seismometers for seismological and engineering application are formulated. On the above basis, a review of all existing rotational seismometers is presented with a description of the principles of their operation as well as possibilities to fulfill formulated requirements. This review includes mechanical, acoustical, electrochemical and optical devices and shows that the last of these types are the most promising. It is shown that optical rotational seismometer based on the ring-laser gyroscope concept is the best for seismological applications, whereas systems based on fiber-optic gyroscopes demonstrate parameters which are also required for engineering applications. Laboratory results of the Fibre-Optic System for Rotational Events & Phenomena Monitoring using a small 1-D shaking table modified to generate rotational excitations are presented. The harmonic and time-history tests demonstrate its usefulness for recording rotational motions with rates up to 0.25 rad/s.

Interest in measuring displacement gradients, such as rotation and strain, is growing in many areas of geophysical research. This results in an urgent demand for reliable and field-deployable instruments measuring these quantities. In order to further establish a high-quality standard for rotation and strain measurements in seismology, we organized a comparative sensor test experiment that took place in November 2019 at the Geophysical Observatory of the Ludwig-Maximilians University Munich in Fürstenfeldbruck, Germany. More than 24 different sensors, including three-component and single-component broadband rotational seismometers, six-component strong-motion sensors and Rotaphone systems, as well as the large ring laser gyroscopes ROMY and a Distributed Acoustic Sensing system, were involved in addition to 14 classical broadband seismometers and a 160 channel, 4.5 Hz geophone chain. The experiment consisted of two parts: during the first part, the sensors were co-located in a huddle test recording self-noise and signals from small, nearby explosions. In a second part, the sensors were distributed into the field in various array configurations recording seismic signals that were generated by small amounts of explosive and a Vibroseis truck. This paper presents details on the experimental setup and a first sensor performance comparison focusing on sensor self-noise, signal-to-noise ratios, and waveform similarities for the rotation rate sensors. Most of the sensors show a high level of coherency and waveform similarity within a narrow frequency range between 10 Hz and 20 Hz for recordings from a nearby explosion signal. Sensor as well as experiment design are critically accessed revealing the great need for reliable reference sensors.

Rotational seismology caused high interest in the investigation on rotational movements generated by earthquakes, mines and existing in engineering structures. The most oppressive aspect of the research in this field are technical requirements for sensors. They have to be extremely sensitive, as well as possess an extremely wide dynamic range of operation from 0.01 Hz to 100 Hz. This paper points out that solutions basing on the optical technology are the most promising devices in comparison to existing mechanical and electromechanical ones. Especially, instruments basing on the von Laue-Sagnac effect seem to be the most appropriate to investigate rotational phenomena due to the fact that they are entirely insensitive to a translational motion, operate without inertia mass and are able to measure rotation rate in wide frequency and amplitude band. The paper presents a new device named FOSREM which, based on the FOG minimum configuration, possesses special solutions that makes it perfect, in author's knowledge, for any rotation sensing. It enables to measure only a rotational component in a wide range of signal amplitude of 2e-8 rad/s - 10 rad/s, as well as in a wide frequency band from DC to 328.12 Hz. The presented performance characteristics, as well as a laboratory investigation confirm FOSREM's opportunity to measure rotation both in seismological observatories and engineering constructions.

We outline the development and the application in a field test of the Autonomous Fibre-Optic Rotational Seismograph (AFORS), which utilizes the Sagnac effect for a direct measurement of the seismic-origin rotations of the ground. The main advantage of AFORS is its complete insensitivity to linear motions, as well as a direct measurement of rotational components emitted during seismic events. The presented system contains a special autonomous signal processing unit which optimizes its operation for the measurement of rotation motions, whereas the applied telemetric system based on the Internet allows for an AFORS remote control. The laboratory investigation of such two devices indicated that they keep an accuracy of no less than 5.1 × 10⁻⁹ to 5.5 × 10⁻⁸ rad/s in the detection frequency band from 0.83~106.15 Hz and protect linear changes of sensitivity in the above bandpass. Some experimental results of an AFORS-1 application for a continuous monitoring of the rotational events in the Książ (Poland) seismological observatory are also presented.

The paper presents construction and laboratory tests, as well as the first field application of a new fiber-optic rotational seismograph. The system is based on a fiber-optic gyroscope (FOG), with determined Angle Random Walk of the order of 10⁻⁸ rad/Sqrt(s) and a few rad/s maximum detectable amplitude of rotation in the frequency range from direct current (DC) to 328.12 Hz. It has been designed for the rotational seismology area of interest. This work also presents exemplary relevant measurements, which were conducted using a set of two devices installed in the geophysical observatory in Książ, Poland.

In order to meet new directions of research in the field of rotational seismology, a registration of rotation phenomena from mining seismic shocks was carried out by two interferometric optical systems. Applied instruments are based on the Sagnac effect and measure the rotation rate in a direct way. Systems have a wide measuring range both in case of signal amplitude as well as frequency range. Allan variance analysis has indicated that they have proper parameters for the rotational seismology investigation (Angle Random Walk equals 3.20×10 $^{-8}$ rad/√s, as well as Bias Instability equals 2.41×10 $^{-8}$ rad/s). Moreover, regarding applied special electronic processing, they provide rotation rate as an output instead of a change of an angle like in commercially available fiber optic gyroscopes. The optical head of the constructed systems uses depolarized light in order to avoid polarization effect. Systems are remotely controlled by the Internet and adapted to an independent power supply which makes them fully autonomous. Correlation between data gathered by two systems applied in a geophysical observatory in Ksiaż, Poland have been calculated according to the Person7apos;s correlation coefficient.