NSF SAGE Facility FDSNWS station Web Service Documentation

Below is a full list of service parameters and their usage.

Query Usage

To retrieve data from the station service, submit a request by either of the methods below:

• via HTTP GET: Provide a series of parameter-value pairs in the URL that specify the start-time and end-time, along with the desired network(s), station(s), location(s) and channel(s). Please refer to the table below titled “Detailed Descriptions of each Query Parameter” for usage details. Each parameter-value pair should be separated by an ampersand &, and with no space. A GET request may take the following general form:
  

  /query? [channel-options] [time-constraints] [geographic-constraints] [miscellaneous] [nodata=404]

• via HTTP POST: Submit an arbitrary selection list to the service. Please note that all parameters listed under the rectangular geographic constraints, radial geographic constraints, and miscellaneous sections of the Detailed Descriptions of each Query Parameter table on the main service documentation page may be submitted using either GET or POST methods. For additional details on constructing and submitting POST selection files, visit the POST Examples in the Help section.

• via web service clients: Dedicated clients that use the fdsnws-station service can be found on the Client list. In particular, the FetchMetadata script will request metadata from fdsnws-station, parse the returned XML and print or save simple ASCII information; this script can be used as a starting point for creating customized metadata requests.

Sample Queries

• radial geographic
  http://service.iris.edu/fdsnws/station/1/query?latitude=-56.1&longitude=-26.7&maxradius=15&nodata=404

• rectangular geographic with time windows
  …/query?startafter=2003-01-07&endbefore=2011-02-07&minlatitude=15&maxlatitude=55&minlongitude=170&maxlongitude=-170

• text output, with network level exclusion
  …/query?network=S*,-SY&level=network&format=text

• horizontal channels for subsetted TA data
  …/query?network=TA&station=A*&channel=BH?,-BHZ&level=channel&format=text

Detailed Descriptions of each Query Parameter

¹ latitude, longitude, maxradius and minradius work together to define a radial boundary.

² When level=response only 120,000 channel entries may be requested.

³ By default, the service returns a HTTP response code 204, which means the request was successful, but no data (no content) was retrieved. However, because there was no “error”, no error message is generated and it may appear that the browser did nothing. To force an empty query response to display an error message, add nodata=404 to the URL.

Output Format

Output may be text or xml. If format=xml or format is not specified, then the results will be returned in FDSN StationXML format. When format=text or format=geocsv, then a simple | separated table is returned. Note, format=text is not available for level=response

NOTE: In the 1.1 version of this service, networks, stations, and channels without an explicit EndTime are represented in the following way:

• format=xml : the EndTime is OMITTED from the element
• format=text : the EndTime field is EMPTY
• format=geocsv : the EndTime field is EMPTY
  In the future, clients should be prepared for omitted or blank field entries where they do not apply. Currently, such fields known to possibly have blank entries are:
• StartTime
• Instrument (description)
• Scale, ScaleFreq, ScaleUnits, SampleRate

Level

Level specifies the level of detail returned within the returned XML. ‘network’ is the highest level, followed by ‘station’. To see channels within stations, level=‘channel’ is used. The most detailed level is ‘response’, which provides details to permit signal processing and proper conversion of digital readings to physical measurement.

WADL

Retrieve the WADL associated with this service:

application.wadl

Date and Time Formats

YYYY	:: four-digit year
MM	:: two-digit month (01=January, etc.)
DD	:: two-digit day of month (01 through 31)
T	:: date-time separator
hh	:: two digits of hour (00 through 23) (AM/PM NOT allowed)
mm	:: two digits of minute (00 through 59)
ss	:: two digits of second (00 through 59)
ssssss	:: one to six digits representing decimal fractions of a second, down to microseconds

Exclusions

Wildcards and Lists

Problems with this service?

FDSNWS station web service