The vast archive of information held at the IRIS-DMC can now be directly accessed from within MATLAB. The IRIS-DMC has created a MATLAB class file (irisFetch.m) containing the functions needed to access station metadata, event metadata, and seismic traces. These routines utilize the new IRIS Java Web Services Library (IRIS-WS Library) while insulating the user from the need to know Java. The retrieved data is placed directly into a MATLAB variable and is available for immediate use; no knowledge of web services or internal DMC formats (SEED or XML) is required. We anticipate that direct access to data will greatly simplify a MATLAB user’s workflow. For example, it would be trivial to write a program that allows the user to select an earthquake (from the current earthquake archive), select stations (using up-to-date metadata), and then retrieve the appropriate waveforms for immediate analysis: all within MATLAB! For those who don't mind working in Java, the IRIS-WS Library provides a way to create custom access routines from within MATLAB. For example, using the IRIS-WS Library, recent releases of GISMO and the Waveform Suite are now able to retrieve waveforms directly from the DMC archives. Data retrieved this way is immediately available to existing Waveform-based programs with minimal-to-no modifications. There are a host of ways that researchers can bring IRIS-DMC data directly into their workflow. Java users can use the IRIS-WS java library, Python users may request data through ObsPy, command line users can use the various Fetch scripts, and now MATLAB users can use irisFetch.m. To learn more about using MATLAB to access IRIS-DMC stored data and to see examples, please visit: http://www.iris.edu/manuals/javawslibrary/matlab/ Subscribe to the IRIS MATLAB users group at: http://www.iris.washington.edu/mailman/listinfo/iris-mug

Acknoweldgements: Funding provided by the National Science Foundation under Cooperative Agreements EAR-0552316 (IRIS) and EAR-0733069 (EarthScope)

Keywords: matlab, webservices, java, api, data_access