Software

PNSN uses the open-source system called "Earthworm" to import all of our data into a common format for analysis, independent of their source. Analog data are "sampled", digitized and imported to Earthworm. The different manufacturers of digital seismographs each provide software to produce data in Earthworm's format, too.

We also use Earthworm to provide data in real time to collaborating seismic networks, and to import data from stations operated by cooperating seismic networks (both within our our region, and around its edges).

The Earthworm system also detects seismic wave arrivals and produces our first, automatic and rapid estimate of an earthquake's location and size.

The Earthworm system passes data to the ANSS Quake Monitoring System (AQMS). AQMS is a database that facilitates the human review of earthquake seismograms, and initiates the notifications submitted to the national Earthquake Information Distribution System (EIDS). AQMS also initiates the programs that compute other regional earthquake products, such as Fault Plane Solutions, ShakeMaps, Regional Moment Tensors.