News from ASL

After a long spin-up time and cooperation with the IRIS DMC, the Data Collection Center at the USGS Albuquerque Seismological Laboratory (ASL DCC) is again regularly providing QC’d data from the Global Telemetered Seismic Network (GTSN) to the IRIS DMC. These data that have been made available to the ASL by AFTAC (US Air Force), in the form of CD1 streams, are now being converted to 4096 byte mini-SEED by the IRIS DMC. These mini-SEED records are then ftp’d back to the ASL where they are processed in an equivalent manner to the tape based data that we receive from most GSN stations.

We are still working on making telemetered 512-byte mini-SEED data available with less than a ten-minute latency. The problem is complicated since the CD1 streams are not intrinsically chronological.

The ASL DCC has also been actively working to automatically collate the 512-byte telemetry LISS data with the 4096-byte tape based data. The active filling of gaps using these two sources will provide the most complete data set possible from each station.

USGS Intranet Woes
A continuing effort by the USGS IT Security Team to comply with tightening requirements from within the Department of Interior has been a persistent intrusion into what we would call normal network functionality within the ASL. There has been and will continue to be fundamental changes in virtually all aspects network security. Some of these changes have resulted in LISS data interruptions to our users. We again apologize to all who have been inconvenienced by these problems.

General ASL News
The maintenance group at the ASL has completed the installation of the station QSPA in the quiet sector of Antarctica. This station telemeters LISS data (qspa.iu.liss.org) and has proven so far to be one of the quietest stations we maintain.

Even though the ASL is still in temporary facilities, we are glad to report that we have successfully re-leased the seismic test vaults from the Isleta Indians that were once part of the ASL facility on the Isleta Reservation. This is old news from last July, but it is possible that many were not aware of this good turn.

Submitted by Harold Bolton, USGS