BREQ_FAST Request Manual
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NAME
BREQ_FAST - Batch REQuests, FAST
AVAILABILITY
Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology
Data Management Center
1408 NE 45th Street, Seattle WA 98105
(206)547-0393, FAX:(206)547-1093
DESCRIPTION
Batch access to the IRIS DMC archive can be obtained by electronically
mailing a specially formatted file to the IRIS DMC in Seattle.
These are BREQ_FAST files and provide a base level access to the
DMC needed by any user. These requests are not interactive in
that you simply send the file to the DMC and the DMC will return
either full SEED data or
a dataless SEED file matching the request depending on where the
e-mail was sent. For users that do not have access to electronic
mail facilities, the IRIS DMC will process tapes containing images
of BREQ_FAST files in simple ASCII format.
FILE FORMAT
The format of the file is as follows:
.NAME
.INST
.MAIL
.EMAIL
.PHONE
.FAX
.MEDIA:
.ALTERNATE MEDIA:
.ALTERNATE MEDIA:
.LABEL
.SOURCE ---
.HYPO | optional
.MAGNITUDE ---
.QUALITY
.END
request line-1
request line-2
.
.
.
request line-n
!!!BE SURE TO LEFT JUSTIFY EACH TOKEN LINE OR YOUR
REQUEST COULD BE REJECTED.!!!
The format of each line is as follows:
STARTING TIME ENDING TIME
STA NN YYYY MM DD HH MM SS.T YYYY MM DD HH MM SS.T #_CH CH1 CH2 CHn LI
where:
STA is the station
NN is network code
YYYY is the year - 2 digit entries will be rejected!
MM is the month
DD is the day
HH is the hour
MM is the minute
SS.T is the second and tenths of seconds
#_CH is the number of channel designators in the immediately following list
CHn is a channel designator that can contain wildcards
LI is location identifier (optional)
(See the DMS Electronic Newsletter article "Location Identifiers"
for more information about how these identifiers are used.)
Individual lines in the request can not exceed 100 characters.
Valid selections for media at the present time, in the order
of preference are:
Electronic (FTP)
EXABYTE - 2 gigabyte
EXABYTE - 5 gigabyte
DAT (digital audio tape)
DLT
DVD*
* When requesting DVD-R media, there may be a delay in shipment
of data
Please be sure to specify your first, second and third choices
for the output media.
The LABEL entry will be used to name the files containing your
SEED volumes whenever they are small enough to transfer with ftp.
Your SEED volumes will alsO include this LABEL internally so they
can be distinguished regardless of filename. This capability can
help you distinguish data you receive for different projects and
aids communication with regard to a specific request.
HYPOCENTER OPTION
You must add the three token fields .SOURCE, .HYPO, and .MAGNITUDE
to the standard BREQ_FAST file to request hypocenter data. The
fields are defined as follows:
Cited Source Info:
(All referenced entries marked "# n" below refer to field numbers
in blockette 32 of the SEED volume. See the SEED
manual for details about blockette 32).
.SOURCE ~NEIC PDE~Jan 1990 PDE~National Earthquake Information Center-USGS DOI~
| | | |
| | | Publisher Name (# 6)
| | Date Published/Cataloged (# 5)
| Name of Publication - Author (# 4)
Token name
Event Info:
(All referenced entries marked "# n" below refer to field numbers
in blockette 71 of the SEED volume.)
.HYPO ~1990 01 02 20 21 32.62~13.408~144.439~135.0~18~216~Mariana Islands~
| | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | Region Name (# 14)
| | | | | | Seismic Loc (# 13)
| | | | | Seismic region (# 12)
| | | | Depth (# 7)
| | | Longitude (# 6)
| | Latitude (# 5)
| Origin Time (# 3)
Token name
Magnitudes:
.MAGNITUDE ~5.7~mb~
| | |
| | Magnitude Type (Blk 71 - field 10)
| Magnitude (blk 71 - field 9)
Token name
You can have as many MAGNITUDE entries as you need, just repeat
the token.
Also note, you can have optional source entries for each magnitude.
If the cited source is different than the SOURCE line entered
above, just add the references here, i.e:
.MAGNITUDE ~5.7~mb~Publication/Author~Date Published~Publisher Name~
| | | | | |
| | | | | Blk 32 - field 6
| | | | Blk 32 - field 5
| | | Blk 32 - field 4
| | Same as above
| Same as above
Token name
NOTE: The "~" works as a field delimeter and must appear
at the beginning of each line (after the token) and after each
field as shown in the above examples.
QUALITY
OPTION
Data can be of varying
qualities. This field allows requesters to specify the quality of the data
they want to receive. The default value is B (for best available). The values
the Quality Field can assume are:
B Best Data (Q,if not Q then D, if not Q or D then R)
E Everything (Q & D & R)
Q Data tagged as QC'd
D Data of indeterminate quality
(Before June 2002 all miniSEED data was labeled D and as such some had been quality controlled and some had not.)
R Raw Data (For example, data reaching the IRIS DMC via real-time telemetric methods does not have QC applied and is labeled R beginning with data in the year 2002.)
EXAMPLE
An example of a valid short BREQ_FAST file:
.NAME Joe Seismologist
.INST Podunk University
.MAIL 101 Fast Lane, Middletown, KS 89432
.EMAIL joe@podunk.edu
.PHONE 555 555-1212
.FAX 555 555-1213
.MEDIA DVD
.ALTERNATE MEDIA 1/2" tape - 6250
.ALTERNATE MEDIA EXABYTE
.LABEL Joe's FIRST Request
.SOURCE ~NEIC PDE~Jan 1990 PDE~National Earthquake Information Center - USGS DOI~
.HYPO ~1999 01 02 20 21 32.62~ 13.408~ 144.439~135.0~18~216~Mariana Islands~
.MAGNITUDE ~5.7~mb~
.QUALITY B
.END
GRFO IU 1999 01 02 00 18 10.4 1999 01 02 00 20 10.4 1 SHZ
ANTO IU 1999 01 02 02 10 36.6 1999 01 02 02 12 36.6 1 SH?
AFI IU 1999 01 02 02 10 37.1 1999 01 02 02 12 37.1 1 BH? 00
SEE CD 1999 01 02 14 45 08.9 1999 01 02 14 47 08.9 1 SHZ
CASY IU 1999 01 04 02 42 13.4 1999 01 04 02 44 13.4 1 BHZ 10
NNA II 1999 01 04 02 41 57.5 1999 01 04 02 43 57.5 1 BHZ
PFO TS 1999 01 04 02 41 57.5 1999 01 04 02 43 57.5 1 BHZ
PFO II 1999 01 04 02 41 57.5 1999 01 04 02 43 57.5 1 BHZ
KMI CD 1999 01 04 02 41 57.5 1999 01 04 02 43 57.5 1 BHZ
SSE CD 1999 01 04 02 18 25.4 1999 01 04 02 20 25.4 2 B?? SHZ
PAS TS 1999 1 4 2 10 49 1999 1 4 2 12 49 3 BH? SHZ L??
WILDCARDING
The Channel list in the batch file supports limited wild carding.
It is similar to but not the equivalent of UNIX filename wild
carding. Only the "?" wild card character is supported. It means
match any single character. For instance "BH?" means match any
Broad band High Gain Channel when entered into the Channel field.
The Channel list can contain multiple entries such as
3 LHZ BH? S??
As an example a #_ch of 1 and a channel list of L?? (1 L??)
would result in three characters in each of the channel names
in the DMC archive being compared to L??. Since the "?" means
match any character it should be clear that "L??" is the same
as entering "L". The channel names are matched for the same number
of characters as the number in the input channel designator field.
Also, if you are wanting to wildcard for more than one character
you must use a "?" for ALL character positions (ie. if you want
all L channels you must type L??).
The DMC archive stores data for channels using the SEED channel
naming convention documented in the SEED Reference Manual, appendix
A.
Briefly, the channel names are three characters in length. The
first character is the Band Code, the second the Source Code and
the third the Orientation Code. Refer to the SEED reference manual
for a more complete description
of the SEED channel naming convention.
You can also wilcard for networks and stations. However, it
is not suggested that you wildcard for network AND station at
the same time or your request may be too big. A single ? is sufficient
to wildcard for stations.
If you do not include a location identifier (not all stations
use them), you will receive data for all locations that exsist
at that station. (See the DMS Electronic Newsletter article "Location
Identifiers" for more information about how these identifiers
are used.)
One of the major benefits of the BREQ_FAST method is that you
can specify time windows for various stations that have travel
time corrections applied to the windows.
SUBMITTING YOUR REQUESTS
Once you have generated your BREQ_FAST file you can simply mail
it via email to either:
- for full SEED
or
- for dataless SEED*
When the IRIS DMC receives your request, programs will be run
that will compare what you requested with what data are actually
in the IRIS archive, recover the data from the mass storage system,
generate the output SEED volume, and send it to you in the manner
you requested. The only exception to this is that if you request
electronic transfer and the file is too large, an alternate media
will be used.
* A dataless SEED volume contains the metadata for a request
only, including instrument responses, instrument coordinates,
compression type, etc., which can be used in combination with
a miniSEED volume (as extracted from the BUD filesystem) with
rdseed. A dataless, by definition,
contains no "data", in the sense that no waveform data
are included, only headers.
SEE ALSO
SeismiQuery, NetDC,
rdseed
DIAGNOSTICS
Your request will be echoed back via email. Another message is sent
when your SEED format data is available for pickup via FTP.
BUGS AND LIMITATIONS
Not able to guess correct values for out of range data, such
as minutes>59.
Each line expected to begin at the left margin.
Wildcarding convention for CHANNEL names is not UNIX standard.
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version 2004/08/05
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