The U.S. Geological Survey's Albuquerque Seismological Laboratory (ASL) has several initiatives underway to enhance and track the quality of data produced from ASL seismic stations and to improve communication about data problems to the user community. The Data Quality Analyzer (DQA) is one such development and is designed to characterize seismic station data quality in a quantitative and automated manner.

The DQA consists of a metric calculator, a PostgreSQL database, and a Web interface: The metric calculator, SEEDscan, is a Java application that reads and processes miniSEED data and generates metrics based on a configuration file. SEEDscan compares hashes of metadata and data to detect changes in either and performs subsequent recalculations as needed. This ensures that the metric values are up to date and accurate. SEEDscan can be run as a scheduled task or on demand. The PostgreSQL database acts as a central hub where metric values and limited station descriptions are stored at the channel level with one-day granularity. The Web interface dynamically loads station data from the database and allows the user to make requests for time periods of interest, review specific networks and stations, plot metrics as a function of time, and adjust the contribution of various metrics to the overall quality grade of the station.

The quantification of data quality is based on the evaluation of various metrics (e.g., timing quality, daily noise levels relative to long-term noise models, and comparisons between broadband data and event synthetics). Users may select which metrics contribute to the assessment and those metrics are aggregated into a “grade” for each station. The DQA is being actively used for station diagnostics and evaluation based on the completed metrics (availability, gap count, timing quality, deviation from a global noise model, deviation from a station noise model, coherence between co-located sensors, and comparison between broadband data and synthetics for earthquakes) on stations in the Global Seismographic Network and Advanced National Seismic System.