IRIS Announces Release of New Nominal Response Library Web Service

Dear Seismological Community,

IRIS is pleased to announce the release of our new Nominal Response Library (NRL) web service.

The NRL is an authoritative set of manufacturers’ recommended nominal instrument responses. The goal of the Library is to make it easier for the seismological and broader geophysical communities to both share and create metadata for common instrumentation. Since 2006, the NRL has provided response information for users and metadata clients alike in the form of RESP files through its original website and a downloadable zip file of its full contents. We are now releasing a web service version of the NRL that serves response information in a larger variety of formats and request options and facilitates adding new response types that arise, while simplifying maintenance.

The new NRL web service allows users to:

  • Browse the contents of the NRL
    • Use the ‘catalog’ query method (JSON, XML or text)
    • Use the new web tool 
  • Construct complete instrument responses by ‘combining’ sensor and recording components that you select.
  • Receive response files in RESP, StationXML, StationXML-Response formats (StationXML-Response is a response-only subset of FDSN StationXML 1.1 [schema]).
  • Download a full copy of the NRL in RESP or StationXML format for local offline use.

The new NRL is constructed to be more flexible and extensible, allowing IRIS to accommodate response descriptions for new types of instrumentation such as:

  • integrated recorders
  • state of health channels
  • polynomial response descriptions, and 
  • other types of instrumentation and responses that may arise in the future.

Because current metadata software, such as PDCC and ObsPy, are not yet adapted to use the new NRL, the original version of the NRL will be maintained in tandem with the new NRL web service until at least Spring 2023.  After that time, when there is no longer a compelling need for it, the original NRL version will be retired.

IRIS Data Services will offer an introductory short course on the new NRL web service and Yasmine (a new StationXML metadata creation tool) from 8am to noon EDT on Day 0 (Monday, June 13th) of the 2022 SAGE/GAGE Community Science Workshop in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Information about the short course and registration can be found on the Agenda under Day 0.

 

Best regards,

The NRL Web Service Team
nrl_contact@iris.washington.edu