Observatories and Research Facilities for EUropean Seismology
Volume 2, no 2 Augus 2000 Orfeus Newsletter


New EC-project at ORFEUS: MEREDIAN

MEREDIAN consortium and Torild van Eck1
1 ORFEUS, c/o Seismology Division, Royal Netherlands Meteorologcal Institute (KNMI), P.O.Box 201, 3730 AE De Bilt, The Netherlands.

Introduction

MEREDIAN, an acronym for Mediterranean-European Rapid Earthquake Data Information and Archiving Network, is a 3-year European project co-ordinated within ORFEUS and sponsored by the EC. This project aims at upgrading the ORFEUS related earthquake waveform data infrastructure in Europe and its immediate surroundings. Our specific goal is to provide open, rapid and easy access to a large volume of high-quality earthquake waveform data for research and rap id earthquake analysis.

Key elements are:

  • Securing access to real-time data (minutes-hours delay) and a large volume of quality controlled archived data (maximum delay of one year).
  • Implementing (automated) data exchange mechanisms (AutoDRM, satellite communication)
  • Developing a distributed European seismological archive (using the NetDC protocol)
  • Co-ordinating software development and securing seismological software through the "open source concept" with a special focus on Java.

Project highlights

A large effort within the project lies on the consortium members, i.e. major national observatories and ORFEUS. This effort should ensure that data is properly archived and, most important, easy and rapidly accessible across border, to other observatories and to the research community. Other parts of the project are concerned with improving data exchange and software development. Therefore, many elements within the project can directly benefit others and be exploited by them. Some of these are summarised below:

Pilot project VSAT. An experiment to retrieve waveform data by listening in to existing satellite network data transmissions.
AutoDRM. Active installation of AutoDRM software at seismological observatories throughout the European-Mediterranean area.
EuroSpyder. Expanding waveform data retrieval and archiving for M > 4.9 earthquakes within the European-Mediterranean area.
Format conversion. Offering more assistance and facilities for conversion to the standard SEED format for archiving (a.o. further developing SeedStuff).
Near Real Time (NRT) data exchange. Developing and installing (semi) automatic data exchange procedures for archiving with a minimum of delay (weeks, months).
SeisComp. Further development of data acquisition, processing and communications software packages for Linux.
Seismogram Viewer. Further development of data viewing and basic analysis tools in Java enabling data import from both local source and the Internet.

How can you benefit, although you do not participate in the project?

The MEREDIAN project will be funded within the 5th framework EC program and is a so-called "Support for Research Infrastructure" project. In our case this means a research infrastructure to benefit seismologists throughout Europe and its surroundings. The EC emphasises also the importance of disseminating the project results beyond the consortium members alone. We have therefore chosen a procedure in which the project progress and its development will be monitored within ORFEUS. Consequently, you are invited to participate within the different ORFEUS meetings, working group~Rs etc, as MEREDIAN progress and plans will be discussed there. Also, if you find any interest in the aspects summarised above, please, do not hesitate to contact ORFEUS or any other within the MEREDIAN consortium. As soon as the project has officially started a specific MEREDIAN web site will be created at ORFEUS providing an overview over the project and different on-going activities.

Project specifics

EC-PROPOSAL: EVR1-1999-00006
CONTRACT: EVR1-CT-2000-40007
PROJECT CO-ORDINATOR: Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI) / Seismological Division: Torild van Eck
MEREDIAN CONSORTIUM (and contacts):

PROJECT START: Autumn 2000
PROJECT DURATION: 3 years

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