Abstract:

Abstract Earthworm is flexible seismic processing system that takes you from the back of a digitizer to a news release while distributing and archiving products along the way. It uses real-time data from a diverse set of instrumentation to produce a wide range of products including: automatic and reviewed earthquake locations, magnitudes, alarms, and numerous higher-level products. It enables the rapid exchange of waveform and parametric data, thus allowing output from multiple networks to be incorporated for real-time processing and the creation of backup installations. It consists of hundreds of open-source modules that can be used as building blocks for a customized processing system. Earthworm’s continued survival is based upon broad community support, the commitment of the Earthworm core development team, dedicated USGS funding, and frequent updates and enhancements. Earthworm’s modular design and message passing communications result in a scalable adaptable system for networks of all sizes. The development team is currently improving interactive processing utilities, extending earthworm’s teleseismic processing capabilities, developing modules to calculate a wide variety of magnitudes, and integrating new data loggers. The purpose of this article is to provide a brief overview of the system’s capabilities, architecture, and installation and maintenance requirements so a network operator can assess the suitability of Earthworm for his or her needs. For a more complete description see the online documentation at http://gldbrick.cr.usgs.gov.