The NCEDC Earthquake Data AWS Public Dataset

AWS Bucket Name and Region: s3://ncedc-pds; us-east-2

The Northern California Earthquake Data Center (NCEDC) is the permanent archive and distribution center for various types of digital data relating to earthquakes in central and northern California.

Time series data come from broadband, short period, and strong motion seismic sensors, GPS, and other geophysical sensors.

We are pleased to announce that these holdings are now also part of the AWS Public Dataset program.

Station metadata from the BK/BP/NC/NP networks and the NCSS earthquake catalog is also included in the dataset.

All data are updated daily.




Getting Started With NCEDC AWS Public Dataset

 

Continuous Waveforms

Data organization

These are waveforms continuously recorded by the NCSS.

  • The top level keyname for continous data is "continuous_waveforms".
  • Each file is one day, starting 00:00:00 UTC. A single channel is uniquely represented by a network code, station code, channel code and location code.
  • Each file has key names for the year (4 digit) and the day of the year (3 digit [001-366]).
     continuous_waveforms/
      Network_Code/
       YYYY/
        YYYY.DOY/
          filename
    Example: continuous_waveforms/BG/2023/2023.022/CLV.BG.DPN..D.2023.022
  • The data may contain gaps.

File naming convention

[Station code].[Network code].[Channel code].[Location code].D.[year].[day of year]

Examples: MERC.BK.HNZ.00.D.2022.254, KBG.NC.HHZ..D.2018.023 where:

  • [Station code] = 5 letter SEED station code
  • [Network code] = 2 letter SEED network code
  • [Channel code] = 3 letter SEED channel code
  • [Location code] = 2 letter SEED location code
  • [year] = 4 digit year
  • [day of the year] = 3 digit day of the year (aka ordinal date)

File format

Data are in MiniSEED format.


Archived Event Based Waveforms

Data organization

These are waveforms whose time windows are centered around an event in the NCSS catalog.

  • The top level keyname for event based waveforms is "event_waveforms".
  • Each file is one event, comprising of time series of seismic channels, written out one after another. The window should encompass the arrival of the events energy at the channel.
    •  event_waveforms/
      YYYY/
       YYYY.DOY/
         filename
    Example: event_waveforms/2022/2022.345/NC.73817471.NCSS.ms

File naming convention

NC.[Event id].[System].ms

Example: NC.73817471.NCSN.ms where:

  • [Event id] = NCSS catalog event identifier
  • [System] = NCSN (Northern California Seismic Network - USGS) or NCSS (Northern California Seismic System - USGS & UCB)

File format

Data are in MiniSEED format.


Recent Event Based Waveforms

Data organization

These are waveforms whose time windows are centered around a recent event in the NCSS catalog.

  • The top level keyname for event based waveforms is "event_waveforms".
  • Each file is one channel for a given event. The window should encompass the arrival of the events energy at the channel.
    •  event_waveforms/
      recent/
       NC.[Event Id]/
         filename
    Example: event_waveforms/recent/NC.73976466/WSRE.BK.HHE.00.D.ms

File naming convention

[Station code].[Network code].[Channel code].[Location code].D.ms

Examples: MERC.BK.HNZ.00.D.ms, KBG.NC.HHZ..D.ms where:

  • [Station code] = 5 letter SEED station code
  • [Network code] = 2 letter SEED network code
  • [Channel code] = 3 letter SEED channel code
  • [Location code] = 2 letter SEED location code

File format

Data are in MiniSEED format.


Northern California Seismic System Earthquake Phase Catalog

Data organization

These files contain summary and phase information of events detected by the NCSS.

  • The top level keyname for event based waveforms is "event_phases".
  • Earthquake summary and phase information is stored in monthly files.
    • event_phases/
      YYYY/
        filename
    Example:event_phases/2019/2019.10.phase.Z

File naming convention

[YYYY].[MM].phase.Z

Example: 1998.03.phase.Z where:

  • [YYYY] = Year
  • [MM] = Month

File format

Data are in Hypoinverse format (compressed).


Northern California Seismic System Earthquake Hypocenter Catalog

Data organization

These files contain hypocenter information of events detected by the NCSS.

  • The top level keyname for event based waveforms is "earthquake_catalogs".
  • Earthquake summary information is stored in yearly files.
    • earthquake_catalogs/
      NCEDC/
        filename
    Example:earthquake_catalogs/NCEDC/2019.ehpcsv

File naming convention

[YYYY].catalog

Example: 1998.ehpcsv where:

  • [YYYY] = Year

File format

Data are in EHP CSV format.


Metadata

Data organization

These files describe the station metadata and instrument response for seismic sites in the NCSS networks.

  • Each file contains metadata for a single station for all epochs. Key names are "FDSNstationXML" and the network code.
    FDSNstationXML/
      Network_Code/
        filename
    Example: FDSNstationXML/BK/BK.ARC.xml
  • Only the NCSS networks are hosted in the public dataset. Please see the authoritative network for other stations.

File naming convention

[Network code].[Station code].xml

Example: BK.MERC.xml where:

  • [Network code] = 2 letter SEED network code
  • [Station code] = 5 letter SEED station code

File format

Data are in FDSN StationXML format.