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About ORFEUS
Observatories & Research Facilities for European Seismology
ORFEUS (Observatories and Research Facilities for European
Seismology, http://orfeus-eu.org/) is a non-profit foundation
that promotes seismology in the Euro-Mediterranean area through
the collection, archival and distribution of seismic waveform
data, metadata, and closely related services and products. The
data and services are collected or developed at national level
by more than 60 contributing Institutions in Pan-Europe. They
are further developed, integrated, standardized, homogenized and
promoted through ORFEUS.
Among the goals of ORFEUS are: (a) the development and
coordination of waveform data products; (b) the coordination of
a European data distribution system, and the support for seismic
networks in archiving and exchanging digital seismic waveform
data; (c) the encouragement of the adoption of best practices
for seismic network operation, data quality control and data
management; (d) the promotion of open access to seismic waveform
data, products and services for the broader Earth science
community. These goals are achieved through the development and
maintenance of data services targeted to a broad community of
seismological data users, ranging from earth scientists to
earthquake engineering practitioners.
Two Service Management Committees (SMCs) are consolidated within
ORFEUS, devoted to managing, operating and developing (with the
support of one or more Infrastructure Development Groups): (i)
the European Integrated waveform Data Archive (EIDA;
https://www.orfeus-eu.org/data/eida/); and (ii) the European
Strong-Motion databases (SM;
https://www.orfeus-eu.org/data/strong/). A new SMC is being
encouraged to represent the community of European mobile pools
(including amphibian instrumentation). Products and services for
computational seismologists are also considered for integration
in the ORFEUS domain, possibly leveraging on new EC-funded
efforts.
ORFEUS services currently provide access to the waveforms
acquired by ~ 18,000 stations in Pan-Europe, including dense
temporary experiments, with strong emphasis on open,
high-quality data. Contributing to ORFEUS data archives means
benefitting from long-term archival, state-of-the-art quality
control, improved access, increased usage, and community
participation. Access to data and products is ensured through
state-of-the-art information and communication technologies,
with strong emphasis on federated web services that considerably
improve seamless user access to data gathered and/or distributed
by the various ORFEUS institutions. Web services also facilitate
the automation of downstream products. Particular attention is
paid to adopting clear policies and licenses, and acknowledging
the crucial role played by data providers, who are part of the
ORFEUS community.
There are significant efforts by ORFEUS participating
institutions to enhance the existing services to tackle the
challenges posed by the Big Data Era, with emphasis on data
quality, improved user experience, and implementation of
strategies for scalability, high-volume data access and
archival. ORFEUS actively encourages interoperability and
integration of multidisciplinary datasets in seismological and
Earth Science workflows. ORFEUS data and services are assessed
and improved through the technical and scientific feedback of a
User Advisory Group (UAG), which comprises European Earth
scientists with expertise on a broad range of disciplines.
All ORFEUS services are developed in coordination with EPOS and
are largely integrated in the EPOS Data Access Portal
(https://www.ics-c.epos-eu.org/). ORFEUS is one of the founding
Parties and a fundamental pillar of EPOS Seismology
(https://www.epos-eu.org/tcs/seismology), that comprises ORFEUS,
the EMSC (https://www.emsc-csem.org) and EFEHR
(http://www.efehr.org). ORFEUS is active in EC-funded projects.
ORFEUS participates in the International (FDSN;
https://www.fdsn.org/).
From the beginning ....
The ORFEUS organization originally started in 1987 by the
cooperation of about 25 seismologists in Europe. Their
ORFEUS Science Plan
iniated the birth of the ORFEUS foundation.