The EGU2010 SM1.3 Seismic Centers Data Acquisition session: an introduction to Antelope, EarthWorm and SeisComP, and their use around the World

Session «SM1.3 - Seismic Centers Data Acquisition» was part of the General Assembly 2010 of the European Geosciences Union (EGU) that took place in Vienna (Austria) from 2-7 May, 2010. This session was organized to present both the differences and similarities in the operations of different types of seismic data centers, to share the experiences and to stimulate constructive discussion. There are only a few, widely used, "all-in-one" data acquisition and processing packages available for seismic data centers, with two public-domain tools (SeisComP and EarthWorm) and one commercial tool (Antelope). The choice of any particular tool will depend on many different criteria, from operational aspects to scientific results, or on the availability of specific requirements in relation to a specific mission. The development of EarthWorm originally started in 1993 in the USA, and it was designed to replace the aging and vendor-tied, regional processing systems. Antelope, started around 1996, with the aim to have real-time data flow from field sensors to scientist. SeisComP also started in the nineties as a real-time data acquisition and processing system, and it evolved towards an early warning system for seismic observatories. Protocols have been established to exchange real-time waveform data between the different packages. In this introductory report, we outline the main characteristics of the three software packages for seismic data acquisition.<br /&gt