Thread: connection between origin and magnitude

Started: 2012-05-24 20:20:13
Last activity: 2012-05-24 21:11:06
Topics: Web Services
Philip Crotwell
2012-05-24 20:20:13
Hi

My understanding is that magnitudes are connected to origins (at least
in the iris database). But from the returned xml, there is no obvious
connection except maybe by the ordering of the elements.

Looking at the quakeml documentation, it looks like a magnitude can
have an "originID" element. Could that be populated, when known, so
that the magnitude to origin connection is explicit?

thanks,
Philip

  • Chad Trabant
    2012-05-24 18:00:27

    On May 24, 2012, at 10:20 AM, Philip Crotwell wrote:

    Hi

    My understanding is that magnitudes are connected to origins (at least
    in the iris database). But from the returned xml, there is no obvious
    connection except maybe by the ordering of the elements.

    Looking at the quakeml documentation, it looks like a magnitude can
    have an "originID" element. Could that be populated, when known, so
    that the magnitude to origin connection is explicit?

    Hi Philip,

    Yes there is an originID associated with a magnitude in our system. We will plan on adding this to a future release.

    One wrinkle with this is that our notion of a preferred magnitude is event-oriented and not limited to a given origin. The reason is that a particular origin identified as the preferred may not have what many folks would consider the preferred magnitude associated with it. The example is a ISC origin where the ISC Mb magnitude is associated, many folks would prefer the Mw or variants. What this means is that when selecting only preferred origins and magnitudes the results may include a magnitude that identifies and origins that is not included in the results. Adding the origin associated with a magnitude will just make this more obvious, maybe that's a good thing.

    Chad



    • Philip Crotwell
      2012-05-24 21:11:06
      Nothing is ever simple is it! :)

      Having the originID in the magnitude would at least make the issue explicit.

      In some ways the notion of "preferred magnitude" is pretty nebulous
      anyway. If all you want is a coarse cut, "I don't care just give me
      one magnitude per" then it doesn't matter, and if it matters you are
      probably going to disregard preferred anyway and pick the magnitude
      type you care about.

      Buyer beware...

      thanks
      Philip

      On Thu, May 24, 2012 at 2:00 PM, Chad Trabant <chad<at>iris.washington.edu> wrote:

      On May 24, 2012, at 10:20 AM, Philip Crotwell wrote:

      Hi

      My understanding is that magnitudes are connected to origins (at least
      in the iris database). But from the returned xml, there is no obvious
      connection except maybe by the ordering of the elements.

      Looking at the quakeml documentation, it looks like a magnitude can
      have an "originID" element. Could that be populated, when known, so
      that the magnitude to origin connection is explicit?

      Hi Philip,

      Yes there is an originID associated with a magnitude in our system.  We will plan on adding this to a future release.

      One wrinkle with this is that our notion of a preferred magnitude is event-oriented and not limited to a given origin.  The reason is that a particular origin identified as the preferred may not have what many folks would consider the preferred magnitude associated with it.  The example is a ISC origin where the ISC Mb magnitude is associated, many folks would prefer the Mw or variants.  What this means is that when selecting only preferred origins and magnitudes the results may include a magnitude that identifies and origins that is not included in the results.  Adding the origin associated with a magnitude will just make this more obvious, maybe that's a good thing.

      Chad


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21:17:18 v.22510d55