As part of modernising and future-proofing our seismic data services, you may have noticed that GeoNet has begun streaming our strong motion seismic data continuously at a high sample rate.

So, what is happening?

As of the 10th of February 2020, all GeoNet strong motion sites have been streaming seismic data in near-real time at a sample rate of 200Hz. This is the culmination of an impressive bit of work long in the planning, involving all levels of GeoNet data collection. This will affect the GeoNet Data, GeoNet Rapid and GeoNet Data International products provided.

What seismic channels are changing?

Now - 200Hz continuous data are now available from all strong motion sites on channels HN* From 15/06/2020 - 50Hz continuous data will be turned off, channels BN* will be turned off.

What is not changing?

Triggered 200Hz data will remain on for now, but will eventually be turned off as we fully implement the continuous 200Hz data streams, especially with respect to generating strong motion products after a significant event. Strong motion derived data product and waveform delivery will be unaffected, as will the GeoNet strong motion shaking map.

What do I have to do?

Any codes which currently sample the BN* channels will have to be aimed at the HN* channels for a given site/location, respectively.
Please check out our Data Tutorials as a good starting point.

Why the change?

This will significantly speed up the availability of strong motion data to our processing centre (fixing a problem we encountered during the Kaikoura event), and therefore, its availability to the public and our support for monitoring Aotearoa/New Zealand’s geohazards.

This will unblock product development for several strong motion products, notably the strong motion volume products delivered by GeoNet which are in the process of being re-developed. Keep your eyes peeled for news in this space.

There are also several potential new products which can be now be put in place by GeoNet to suit the needs of our research and engineering end-users in a significant event. All strong motion data will now be available at a higher sampling rate, which means a rich dataset to take advantage of.

If you have questions or would like assistance with switching from 50Hz continuous strong motion data to 200Hz, please get contact our support team via Email or catch us on GitHub

Attributable to: Jonathan Hanson – Science Operations and Data Team Leader