We’re excited to announce that we have joined the AWS Open Data Sponsorship Program, making datasets managed by the NSF National Geophysical Facility more accessible than ever to researchers around the world. The program covers costs associated with storage and access for high-value public datasets and lists them in the Registry of Open Data on AWS.
A subset of the NSF NGF seismological repository is now available directly from S3, AWS’s cloud-native storage system, at no cost to the user, no limitation on the user’s location, and with no account-based permissions or authentication required. The data are in miniSEED format and complement the public datasets from Northern California Earthquake Data Center (NCEDC) and Southern California Earthquake Data Center (SCEDC).
The initial subset of seismic data (250+ TBs) include the entirety of the USArray Transportable Array network, the Plate Boundary Observatory Borehole Seismic Network, the primary Global Seismographic Networks (II and IU), the Central & Eastern US Network, and the Alaska, Utah, and Pacific Northwest seismic networks.
More details needed to access these data can be found in our documentation.
In the future we intend to add more datasets to the sponsored open data bucket, including more seismic networks, GNSS datasets, etc., depending on demand.
Supporting data access on S3 cloud storage enables researchers to analyze data in AWS without the need to download and store large datasets. We already offer direct access to the miniSEED repository with an EarthScope account within AWS us-east-2. Open Data in AWS has no restrictions and can be freely accessed from anywhere.
Scientists can now work with NSF NGF datasets directly inside AWS, alongside the compute, analytics, and machine learning services already available there. GeoLab users can read these datasets in place, with no download step and no local storage to manage. This means scientists spend less time managing data and more time doing science.
Our open data bucket is another step in our move toward cloud-native geoscience. It joins GeoLab, which gives researchers a browser-based cloud computing environment, and the On-Ramp to the Cloud initiative, which provides training for adopting cloud-based workflows. Together, these resources lower the barrier to working with NSF NGF data at scale.
Check out our resources to get started in GeoLab today!
| Authenticated Repository Access | AWS Open Data Bucket | |
| What data are included? | The entire miniSEED repository | Selected networks (AK, II, IU, N4, PB, TA, UU, UW) |
| Data access & availability | Requires EarthScope account; ONLY available in AWS us-east-2 cloud Region (e.g., GeoLab) | Available to anyone in the world, no account or authentication required. Access data in the AWS cloud, from another cloud platform, or stream locally to your computer |
| How is the data owned/maintained? | NSF NGF data repository, source-of-truth archive | A copy of a subset of the NSF NGF archive, hosted and sponsored by Amazon |
| Cost to users | Free | Free |
| Cost to EarthScope | Flat per-request fee (ListBucket, GetObject) | Free |
| Access Instructions | See documentation | See documentation |