Getting Started

For the impatient

Note

Note that the default config parameters are suited for a M<5 earthquake recorded within ~100 km. Adjust win_length, noise_pre_time, the frequency bands (bp_freqmin_*, bp_freqmax_*, freq1_*, freq2_*) and the bounds on fc and t_star, according to your problem.

Use case: miniSEED + StationXML + QuakeML

If you have seismic recordings in miniSEED format (e.g., traces.mseed), metadata in StationXML format (e.g., station.xml) and event information in QuakeML format (e.g., event.xml), then:

  1. Generate a config file via source_spec -S;

  2. Edit the config file variable station_metadata to point to station.xml file;

  3. Run source_spec -t traces.mseed -q event.xml.

Use case: SAC + PAZ + SourceSpec Event File

If you have seismic recordings in SAC format (e.g., in a directory named sac_data), metadata as SAC polezero (PAZ) (e.g., in a directory named paz) and event information in any format, then:

  1. Generate a config file via source_spec -S;

  2. Edit the config file variable station_metadata to point to the paz directory;

  3. Generate a sample SourceSpec Event File using source_spec -y; this will create a file named ssp_event.yaml;

  4. Edit the file ssp_event.yaml with your event information;

  5. Run source_spec -t sac_data -H ssp_event.yaml.

Command line arguments

After successfully installed SourceSpec (see Installation), you can get help on the command line arguments used by each code by typing from your terminal:

source_spec -h

(or source_model -h, or source_residuals -h).

source_spec and source_model require you to provide the path to seismic traces via the --trace_path command line argument (see File Formats).

Information on the seismic event can be stored in the trace header (SAC format), or provided through a QuakeML file (--qmlfile) or, alternatively (--hypocenter), through a SourceSpec Event File, a HYPO71 file, or a HYPOINVERSE-2000 file. See File Formats for more information on the supported file formats.

Configuration file

source_spec and source_model require a configuration file. The default file name is source_spec.conf, other file names can be specified via the --configfile command line argument.

You can generate a sample configuration file through:

source_spec -S

Take your time to go through the generated configuration file (named source_spec.conf): the comments within the file will guide you on how to set up the different parameters.

More details are in section Configuration File.