Broadband Platform Upcoming Release

Fig 1: Broadband Platform.

The SCEC Broadband Platform is a software system which generates 0-100 Hz seismograms for historical and scenario earthquakes in California, Eastern North America, and Japan.

Overview

The goal of the SCEC Broadband Simulation Platform is to generate broadband (0-100 Hz) ground motions for earthquakes. The SCEC Broadband Platform is a collaborative software development project involving SCEC researchers, research engineers, graduate students, and the SCEC/CME software development group. SCEC scientific groups have contributed modules to the Broadband Platform including rupture generation, low- and high-frequency seismogram synthesis, non-linear site effects, and visualization. These complex scientific codes have been integrated into a system that supports easy on-demand computation of broadband seismograms. The SCEC Broadband Platform is designed to be used by both scientific and engineering researchers with some experience interpreting ground motion simulations.

Users may calculate broadband seismograms for both historical earthquakes (validation events including Northridge and Loma Prieta) and user-defined earthquakes. The platform produces a variety of data products, including broadband seismograms, rupture visualizations, and several goodness-of-fit plots. Users can install the platform on their own machine, verify that it is installed correctly, and run their own simulations on demand without requiring knowledge of any of the code involved. Users may run a validation event, supply their own simple source description, or provide a rupture description in SRF format. Users may specify their own list of stations or use a provided list. Currently the platform supports stations and events in Southern California, the Bay Area, the Mojave Desert, Eastern United States, Eastern Canada, Central and Western Japan. Users may select among various method that include rupture generation, low-frequency synthesis, high-frequency synthesis, and incorporation of site effects, with the option of running a goodness-of-fit comparison against observed or simulated seismograms. These codes have been validated against recorded ground motions from real events.

The Broadband Platform was implemented using software development best practices, including version control, user documentation, acceptance tests, and formal releases, with the aim of accuracy, reliability, ease of installation and use.

Current Release

The current official release of Broadband Platform is v16.5.0. This is a new version of the platform that includes a large number of new capabilities. It is the first major release of the Broadband Platform since version 15.3.0, released in March 2015. Details of the new features along with several bugs fixes are provided in the release notes. New, and old Broadband platform users should work with this version of the software, and we recommend current Broadband platform users migrate to this new version whenever possible.

Dependencies

Broadband has the following dependencies:

• Python 2.7.9+ with
  • NumPy 1.9.2
  • Scipy 0.14.1
  • matplotlib 1.4.3
  • PyProj 1.9.2
• GNU compilers (gcc, gfortran) v4.5.1

Please refer to the Broadband User Guide v16.5.0 for more details about the specific versions required for each of the packages above. This version of the Broadband Platform does NOT require Intel compilers.

Documentation Including Installation Instructions

User Guide Wiki (includes installation instructions):

• Broadband User Guide v16.5.0
• Broadband v16.5.0 Release Notes
• Broadband File Format Guide

Broadband Platform Easy Installation

This section provides a brief overview of how the Broadband Platform can be installed on your local Linux or Mac OS X computer. It covers the Easy Installation method, where users download and run a shell script that downloads the other components based on user responses. Users are welcome to set up the Broadband Platform manually on their systems using the old installation instructions described in the Broadband Platform Manual Installation 16 5 0 page.

Starting with this version of the Broadband Platform, we provide an easy installation script that can guide users through downloading and installing the Broadband Platform on a Linux or Mac OS X computer that meets the system requirements for the Broadband Platform. For this method, users need to download the BBP 16.5.0 Easy Install Script. Once that script is downloaded, users should:

$ chmod +x easy_install_bbp_16.5.0.sh
$ ./easy_install_bbp_16.5.0.sh <directory>

The script will automatically create a "bbp" subdirectory, where it will install the Broadband Platform. To install the Broadband Platform in the current directory, users can simply type:

$ ./easy_install_bbp_16.5.0.sh .

====== Welcome to Broadband Platform 16.5.0 installation script =====

 Using destination directory: /home/sarah

=> Main Broadband Platform Source Distribution
==> Downloading...
==> Compiling...
==> Installed!

The easy installation script will automatically download and compile the main source distribution. Following that, it will ask users to select which regions should be installed along with the Platform. Please note that saying "Yes" to a region, will automatically install any validation events available for that region. At a minimum, and in order to run Unit and Acceptance tests, users should say "Yes" to the "LA Basin" region.

Please select what velocity models (regions) you would like to install:

==> Would you like to install the Northern California region?
1) Yes
2) No
#?2

==> Would you like to install the LA Basin region?
1) Yes
2) No
#? 1

...
...
...

=> Installing Broadband Platform Velocity Model Packages
==> LA Basin

After installing the Broadband Platform on their systems, users should confirm the code is built correctly by running Unit tests and then Acceptance tests before starting to use the code for research purposes. For detailed information, please refer to the Broadband User Guide v16.5.0.

Supporting Materials

• Broadband Poster from SSA 2014 - Fabio Silva (PDF, 8.3MB)
• Broadband poster from AGU 2014 (PDF, 13.8MB)
• Broadband overview talk from SC10 (PPT, 3.7 MB)
• Technical diagrams of Broadband module relationships (PPTX, 16 KB)

Help

For assistance with the Broadband Platform, you may

• Email software @ scec.org with specific questions
• Browse and submit new trouble tickets, or feature requests, at Broadband Trac site. SCEC user login is required to submit trouble tickets this way.

License

SCEC Broadband Platform software distributions are released under an Apache 2.0 open-source license as described here Broadband License.

Broadband Platform Developers and Collaborators

• Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research Center
• San Diego State University Dept of Geological Sciences
• SCEC
• SCEC/CME Project
• ETH Zurich - Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich
• University of California, Berkeley
• U.C. Santa Barbara Dept of Earth Sciences
• UCSB Institute for Crustal Studies
• University of Nevada Reno
• University of Western Ontario
• URS Corporation
• AECOM / URS

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

We post BBP user questions and our response to a Broadband Platform Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page:

• BBP FAQ

Related Wiki Entries

• SCEC Wiki Main
• SCEC Home Page
• SWUS Project
• SCEC Software Downloads

Older Broadband Platform Releases

Earlier version of the broadband platform software and data distributions are provided to support existing Broadband platform users. However, we recommend all users upgrade to the most recent version at first opportunity. Earlier releases can be found in the Broadband Platform Previous Releases page.

Development version

If you're an advanced user, interested in working with the latest development version of the platform, you can check it out from

svn co https://source.usc.edu/svn/broadband/trunk

Details about working with the development version are provided in the User Guide.

The next version of Broadband is expected to be released in Q3 of 2016.

Acknowledging

If you use the Broadband Platform, please support the project by acknowledging it. If your work results in an academic publication, we would be happy if one of the following papers is cited:

1. Christine A. Goulet, Norman A. Abrahamson, Paul G. Somerville, and Katie E. Wooddell (2015) The SCEC Broadband Platform Validation Exercise: Methodology for Code Validation in the Context of Seismic‐Hazard Analyses Seismological Research Letters, January/February 2015, v. 86, p. 17-26, doi:10.1785/0220140104
2. Philip J. Maechling, Fabio Silva, Scott Callaghan, and Thomas H. Jordan (2015) SCEC Broadband Platform: System Architecture and Software Implementation Seismological Research Letters, January/February 2015, v. 86, p. 27-38, First published on December 17, 2014, doi:10.1785/0220140125

References

1. Anderson, J. G (2015) The Composite Source Model for Broadband Simulations of Strong Ground Motions Seismological Research Letters, January/February 2015, v. 86, p. 68-74, First published on December 17, 2014, doi:10.1785/0220140098
2. Atkinson, G. M., and Assatourians, K. (2015) Implementation and Validation of EXSIM (A Stochastic Finite‐Fault Ground‐Motion Simulation Algorithm) on the SCEC Broadband Platform Seismological Research Letters, January/February 2015, v. 86, p. 48-60, First published on December 17, 2014, doi:10.1785/0220140097
3. Crempien, J. G. F., and Archuleta, R. J. (2015) UCSB Method for Simulation of Broadband Ground Motion from Kinematic Earthquake Sources Seismological Research Letters, January/February 2015, v. 86, p. 61-67, First published on December 17, 2014, doi:10.1785/0220140103
4. Dreger, D. S., Beroza, G.C., Day, S. M., Goulet, C. A., Jordan, T. H., Spudich, P. A., and Stewart, J. P. (2015). Validation of the SCEC Broadband Platform V14.3 Simulation Methods Using Pseudospectral Acceleration Data, Seismol. Res. Lett., 86, no. 1, doi:10.1785/0220140118.
5. Dreger, D. S., and Jordan, T. H. (2015) Introduction to the Focus Section on Validation of the SCEC Broadband Platform V14.3 Simulation Methods Seismological Research Letters, January/February 2015, v. 86, p. 15-16, doi:10.1785/0220140233
6. Goulet, C.A., Abrahamson, N.A., Somerville, P.G. and K, E. Wooddell (2015) The SCEC Broadband Platform Validation Exercise: Methodology for Code Validation in the Context of Seismic-Hazard Analyses, Seismol. Res. Lett., 86, no. 1, doi: 10.1785/0220140104
7. Graves, R., and Pitarka, A. (2015) Refinements to the Graves and Pitarka (2010) Broadband Ground‐Motion Simulation Method Seismological Research Letters, January/February 2015, v. 86, p. 75-80, First published on December 17, 2014, doi:10.1785/0220140101
8. Graves, R. W. and A. Pitarka (2010). “Broadband Ground-Motion Simulation Using a Hybrid Approach.” Bull. Seis. Soc. Am., 100(5A), pp. 2095-2123, doi: 10.1785/0120100057. link
9. Maechling, P. J., F. Silva, S. Callaghan, and T. H. Jordan (2015). SCEC Broadband Platform: System Architecture and Software Implementation, Seismol. Res. Lett., 86, no. 1, doi: 10.1785/0220140125.
10. Mai, P.M., W. Imperatori, and K.B. Olsen (2010). “Hybrid broadband ground motion simulations: combining long-period deterministic synthetics with high frequency multiple S-to-S back-scattering.” Bull. Seis. Soc. Am., 100(5A), pp. 2124-2142, doi: 10.1785/0120080194. link
11. Olsen, K. B., and Takedatsu, R. (2015) The SDSU Broadband Ground‐Motion Generation Module BBtoolbox Version 1.5 Seismological Research Letters, January/February 2015, v. 86, p. 81-88, First published on December 17, 2014, doi:10.1785/0220140102
12. Schmedes, J., R. J. Archuleta, and D. Lavallée (2010). “Correlation of earthquake source parameters inferred from dynamic rupture simulations.” J. Geophys. Res., 115, B03304, doi:10.1029/2009JB006689. link