Thread: fdsnws-event service changes: reduced functionally and eventual retirement

Started: 2016-01-28 23:35:01
Last activity: 2016-11-30 00:49:00
Topics: Web Services

Hello Web Service users,

An executive overview:

Within the next month or two the DMC will be reducing the functionality of our fdsnws-event service. In the farther future the DMC will no longer offer an fdsnws-event interface. Reduction in functions coming soon: no secondary origins (primary origins only), only offering the ISC and NEIC PDE catalogs, and no phase arrivals. Web service developers should be building applications that use services from other data centers, a list is here: http://www.fdsn.org/webservices/datacenters/. In particular, the USGS service: http://earthquake.usgs.gov/fdsnws/event/1/ and the ISC services http://isc-mirror.iris.washington.edu/fdsnws/event/1/ and http://www.isc.ac.uk/fdsnws/event/1/.

A longer explanation:

Many years ago when the DMC's web service effort started we were one of the first seismological centers to offer such services. To support access to event-related time series data we developed and maintained what eventually became our fdsnws-event service. In the intervening years other data centers began offering access to their event catalogs via the standardized fdsnws-event service. A list of public fdsnws-event implementations is available here:
http://www.fdsn.org/webservices/datacenters/

The event data most often used from the DMC are from the ISC and NEIC PDE. Both of these catalogs are now offered directly by the organizations that are responsible for them via fdsnws-event interfaces:

ISC:
http://isc-mirror.iris.washington.edu/fdsnws/event/1/
http://www.isc.ac.uk/fdsnws/event/1/

NEIC PDE:
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/fdsnws/event/1/

In light of this, the DMC will eventually retire our own service and we recommend that web service users begin porting and building applications that use other fdsnws-event endpoints. In the near term, we will be reducing the functionality of our current service in the following ways:

* No secondary origins. Our reason to have event information is to aid in selection of time series data, secondary origins are unneeded.

* Only offer the ISC and NEIC PDE catalogs. The other catalogs were mostly unused.

* No phase arrivals. The DMC had very limited phase arrivals and everything we received was forwarded to the ISC.

These reductions result in a much smaller and less complex data set for the DMC to manage with minimal impact on users.

What about the other catalogs?

The Global CMT solutions will remain available from IRIS in our SPUD system:
http://ds.iris.edu/spud/momenttensor

in addition to the Project's own site: http://www.globalcmt.org/

The USArray TA ANF event bulletins will be remain available in our SPUD system:
http://ds.iris.edu/spud/eventbulletin

thanks,
IRIS DMC



  • Hello web service users,

    We are nearing the transition of our event service described below. Please note the reduction in functionality.

    The DMC will not be offering an fdsnws-event interface in the future and users are strongly encouraged to transition to using services offered by event data centers.

    During this transition we have worked very hard to maintain the IRIS event IDs. Unfortunately, due to decades of evolving event collection systems combined with errors in source catalog information over time, numerous subtle problems exist in the old data set and we will not be able to retain every event ID.

    The main purpose of the IRIS DMC collecting and offering event information is to assist in accessing the time series and other data products from our center. While we try to keep everything current we do not guarantee that our event information is up to date with the very latest estimates from the source catalogs.

    thanks,
    IRIS DMC

    On Jan 28, 2016, at 3:35 PM, Chad Trabant <chad<at>iris.washington.edu> wrote:


    Hello Web Service users,

    An executive overview:

    Within the next month or two the DMC will be reducing the functionality of our fdsnws-event service. In the farther future the DMC will no longer offer an fdsnws-event interface. Reduction in functions coming soon: no secondary origins (primary origins only), only offering the ISC and NEIC PDE catalogs, and no phase arrivals. Web service developers should be building applications that use services from other data centers, a list is here: http://www.fdsn.org/webservices/datacenters/. In particular, the USGS service: http://earthquake.usgs.gov/fdsnws/event/1/ and the ISC services http://isc-mirror.iris.washington.edu/fdsnws/event/1/ and http://www.isc.ac.uk/fdsnws/event/1/.

    A longer explanation:

    Many years ago when the DMC's web service effort started we were one of the first seismological centers to offer such services. To support access to event-related time series data we developed and maintained what eventually became our fdsnws-event service. In the intervening years other data centers began offering access to their event catalogs via the standardized fdsnws-event service. A list of public fdsnws-event implementations is available here:
    http://www.fdsn.org/webservices/datacenters/

    The event data most often used from the DMC are from the ISC and NEIC PDE. Both of these catalogs are now offered directly by the organizations that are responsible for them via fdsnws-event interfaces:

    ISC:
    http://isc-mirror.iris.washington.edu/fdsnws/event/1/
    http://www.isc.ac.uk/fdsnws/event/1/

    NEIC PDE:
    http://earthquake.usgs.gov/fdsnws/event/1/

    In light of this, the DMC will eventually retire our own service and we recommend that web service users begin porting and building applications that use other fdsnws-event endpoints. In the near term, we will be reducing the functionality of our current service in the following ways:

    * No secondary origins. Our reason to have event information is to aid in selection of time series data, secondary origins are unneeded.

    * Only offer the ISC and NEIC PDE catalogs. The other catalogs were mostly unused.

    * No phase arrivals. The DMC had very limited phase arrivals and everything we received was forwarded to the ISC.

    These reductions result in a much smaller and less complex data set for the DMC to manage with minimal impact on users.

    What about the other catalogs?

    The Global CMT solutions will remain available from IRIS in our SPUD system:
    http://ds.iris.edu/spud/momenttensor

    in addition to the Project's own site: http://www.globalcmt.org/

    The USArray TA ANF event bulletins will be remain available in our SPUD system:
    http://ds.iris.edu/spud/eventbulletin

    thanks,
    IRIS DMC



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