IRIS-EarthScope USArray Data Processing and Analysis Short Course, 2014
Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, United States

Mike Brudzinski (Miami University), Meghan Miller (University of Southern California), Rob Porritt (University of Southern California), Suzan van der Lee (Northwestern University), Andy Frassetto (IRIS), John Taber (IRIS)

The primary goal of this short course is to provide training in the foundations of seismic data processing for the next generation of young scientists. Our aim is to inspire the participants to become future leaders in developing more effective ways to handle data from large seismic datasets, such as the USArray. Participants will be selected into each short course by the program's steering committee based on the information provided in their applications. Travel and subsistence costs for participants in the short course will be covered by financial support from NSF through the "Collaborative Research: EarthScope Facility Operation and Maintenance (FY2008-FY2013) (USArray)" award to IRIS.

For more information contact Andy Frassetto.

The course will be held on the campus of Northwestern University, 30 minutes north of downtown Chicago along Lake Michigan. Information about travel and lodging will be posted in early summer.

Pre-Course: Unix and SAC Exercises (M. Brudzinski) Exercises based on server at Miami University, students use remote logins to work on a set of lessons relate to Unix, GMT, and SAC

Monday, August 4, 2014

Monday, August 4th, 2014, 7:20am–7:30pm

7:20 am
7:40 am

Meet in hotel lobby

7:40 am
8:10 am

Breakfast at Technological Institute on Northwestern campus

8:10 am
8:30 am

Depart for Library

8:30 am
9:00 am

Welcome and Logistics (S. van der Lee)

9:00 am
9:45 am

Overview of IRIS and USArray, the facility and the science (A. Frassetto)

9:45 am
10:15 am

Installation of common programs/applications on a research computer (L. Kuan, S. van der Lee)

10:15 am
11:00 am

10:15 Unix/shell scripting/GMT (M. Brudzinski)

  • Review of pre-course homework
  • Apply scripts and GMT skills to plot travel times and ray paths 

11:00 am
12:00 pm

LUNCH

12:00 pm
1:30 pm

Unix/shell scripting/GMT (continued) (M. Brudzinski)

  • Apply scripts and GMT skills to plot earthquake magnitudes, seismic tomography, and earthquake cross-sections

1:30 pm
3:00 pm

Python and Research Vignette (E. Wolin)

  • Introduction and Applications
  • ObsPy examples

3:00 pm
3:30 pm

BREAK

3:30 pm
4:45 pm

Matlab and Research Vignette (R. Porritt and A. Frassetto)

4:45 pm
5:00 pm

Introduction to SNEP and FAME datasets (R. Porritt and A. Frassetto)

5:00 pm
5:30 pm

Review and discuss topics covered, expectations, concerns, etc.

5:30 pm
6:30 pm

ADJOURN

6:30 pm
7:30 pm

Cash bar and Introductions (Mt. Everest Restaurant)

7:30 pm

DINNER

Tuesday, August 5, 2014

Tuesday, August 5th, 2014, 7:30am–5:45pm

7:30 am
8:15 am

Breakfast at the hotel

8:15 am
8:30 am

Depart for library

8:30 am
11:00 am

Data Access and DMC tools - Chad

  • Highlight data available from the DMC
  • Present webservices
  • Demonstrate request options
    • Breqfast - Exercise (request, pick up data)
    • JWEED, WILBUR, SeedLink (quickly)
    • Fetch (perl) - Exercises
    • SOD - capabilities and when to use
    • irisFetch (Matlab) - Exercises
    • Data access from ObsPy
  • Format options (XML, SEED, SAC, text, Java/Matlab)

12:00 pm
1:30 pm

LUNCH

12:00 pm
1:30 pm

Basics of coding - Lay Kuan

  • How to fact find
  • Scripting languages versus compiled software
  • The development, coding, and debug cycle
  • Finding, developing, and including libraries
  • Handling exceptions and research versus bullet proof code
  • Version control

1:30 pm
3:00 pm

SAC waveform analysis - Mike, Danielle

  • Review of pre-course "homework"
  • Apply SAC with elocate and focmec to locate earthquakes and determine focal mechanisms

3:00 pm
3:30 pm

BREAK

3:30 pm
5:00 pm

AIMBAT (pick P-wave delay times) + research vignette - Lay Kuan/Suzan

5:00 pm
5:45 pm

Review and discuss topics covered

5:45 pm

ADJOURN

Wednesday, August 6, 2014: Data Processing and Seismic Analyses

Wednesday, August 6th, 2014, 7:30am–5:45pm

7:30 am
8:15 am

Breakfast at hotel

8:15 am
8:30 am

Depart for Library

8:30 am
9:45 am

SplitLab (measure shear wave splitting) + research vignette - Meghan

9:45 am
11:00 am

FuncLab (analyze receiver functions) + research vignette - Rob

11:00 am
12:00 pm

LUNCH

12:00 pm
2:00 pm

Active source data processing + research vignette - Lee

  • Introduction to processing (acquisition, geometry, stacking)
  • Exercise in seismic unix

2:00 pm
3:00 pm

Working with instrument responses - Suzan

3:00 pm
3:30 pm

BREAK

3:30 pm
4:30 pm

Students organize into project teams, select experiment/stations, setup data grabs, begin analyses, etc.

4:30 pm
5:00 pm

Seismic stations and data + research vignette - George

  • Station equipment and design

5:00 pm
5:45 pm

Review and discuss topics covered

5:45 pm

Adjourn and visit seismic station installation - George

Thursday, August 7, 2014: Broader Considerations and Project Work Day

Thursday, August 7th, 2014, 7:30am–7:30pm

7:30 am
7:30 am

Breakfast at the Hotel

7:30 am
8:15 am

Depart for Library

8:30 am
10:00 am

Seismic stations and data + research vignette - George

  • Reading metadata
  • Data structure
  • Exercise - assessing station quality from timeseries data or metrics

10:00 am
11:00 am

Database approach, parallel processing + research vignette - Gary

  • Relational database foundations
  • Examples of table stored in dbs
  • Forms of parallel processing
  • Example using ObsPy and threads

11:00 am
12:00 pm

LUNCH

12:00 pm
1:00 pm

Scientific visualizatinos - Gary

  • Basics of visualization
  • 3D visualization with paraview

1:00 pm
1:30 pm

Tips for creating and delivering effective powerpoint presentations - Andy

1:30 pm
3:00 pm

Work on projects

3:00 pm
3:30 pm

BREAK

3:30 pm
5:30 pm

Work on Projects

5:30 pm
6:30 pm

Final advice on presentations

6:30 pm
7:30 pm

Cash bar (Todoroki Hibachi)

7:30 pm

Celebratory Dinner

Friday, August 8, 2014: Project Work and Summary

Friday, August 8th, 2014, 7:30am–2:30pm

7:30 am
8:15 am

Breakfast at the Hotel

8:15 am
8:30 am

Depart for the Library

8:30 am
11:00 am

Group presentations (data, methods, observations, analysis, results: 15-20 minutes per group, 8 groups)

11:00 am
12:15 pm

LUNCH and group photo

12:15 pm
12:45 pm

Comparison to published SNEP/FAME studies - Rob

12:45 pm
1:30 pm

Surveys - Danielle

1:30 pm
2:30 pm

Wrap-up discussion and summary

2:30 pm

Class dismissed

There are currently no materials available for download.

Material from agenda

    Notice The application period for this course closed on Mon, May 05, 2014 - 11:59:00 PM.

    Important Dates
  • Short Course Dates:
    Aug 4th – 8th
  • Registration:
    Apr 14th – May 5th
  • Location
    Northwestern University