Purpose
The IRIS Quality Assurance Section seeks to monitor and ensure access to the highest quality of seismic data possible.
Overview
In order to ensure that the IRIS data user community has access to the best achievable quality of seismic and related data, the IRIS DMC Quality Assurance (QA) Team seeks to build a QA process that encompasses the IRIS SEED archive. This process would:
- speed identification and reporting of quality issues to network operators,
- track resolution of reported issues,
- communicate current data quality issues to the user community effectively,
- facilitate reporting of potential data quality issues by data users,
- support existing network operational agreements and reporting needs,
- incorporate multi-level QA based on data type and/or network needs,
- measure the homogeneity and improvement of archive quality over time,
- enable creation of research-ready data sets, and
- scale as the archive grows.
Primary Tasks
The QA team plans to automate and streamline routine tasks using MUSTANG and related software whenever possible so that QA staff will be available to:
- develop partnerships with network operators that reflect good communication and coordination of effort,
- interact with the user community to familiarize them with uses and benefits of data quality metrics and translate user reports of data quality issues into improvements to the QA process,
- cultivate expertise within the QA team in evaluating the strengths, uses and limitations of existing metrics,
- incorporate guidance from the Quality Assurance Advisory Commitee (QAAC),
- identify areas where the existing QA process could be improved or optimized, and
- note where data quality could be preemptively enhanced before data leaves the Data Collection Centers through the introduction of new QA tools or methods downstream.
