GEOFON routinely computes power spectral densities (PSDs) calculated over one-hour segments for our data sets. These calculations allow probability distribution function (PDF) and spectrogram plots to be made available by the SeedPSD service available at
This is an implementation of the service developed at Résif-DC, the EPOS-France seismological data center [1], (source code). PSDs are calculated with the method described by McNamara [2] using ObsPy's PPSD class [3].
Below we show a few examples of using the SeedPSD service at GEOFON. PSD coverage is currently incomplete. We have begun with data archived in the current year (2025) and intend to eventually produce metrics for the entire achive. We aim to have the most recent data processed within 1-2 days of its acquisition at the data centre, but as this is computationally intensive it may be delayed from time to time.
[1] P. Bollard, Schaeffer, J., Stehly L., Pedersen, H., & Wolyniec, D. (2022). SeedPSD: Un nouvel outil pour le contrôle de la qualité des données sismologiques. Lettre d'information Résif, 22.
[2] McNamara, D. E. & Buland, R. P. (2004). Ambient Noise Levels in the Continental United States. Bull. Seismol. Soc. Am., 94(4):1517-1527. https://doi.org/10.1785/012003001.
[3] The ObsPy Development Team (2017). obspy.signal.spectral_estimation.PPSD, in ObsPy: A Python Toolbox for seismology/seismological observatories, version 1.1.0.
The histogram service generates probability density function (PDFs) images by overlaying PSD curves for a single stream over a long period of time.
location=--" in the query string.
For further details see https://geofon.gfz.de/eidaws/seedpsd/1/histogram, which can also assist in building URLs for other requests to the service. The plots include:
At GEOFON, the necessary internal data is calculated with a few days' lag. Typically PDFs are available within 48 hours of data collection, but this lag may increase when we have a sudden influx of archived data to be processed.
The septogram webservice generates spectrogram images for a defined data source and time period.
The value service provides the underlying numerical values used to produce the figures displayed by the histogram and spectrogram services.
Here type can specify one of PSD, "PSD mean", "PSD Mode", "Histogram" or "Spectrogram";
format can be CSV, JSON, or NPZ. See the documentation.
######################################################################################## ## GE.NPW..HHZ at 100.0Hz from 2025-04-01T00:00:00.550000 to 2025-04-02T00:00:00.550000 ############################# Period,Mode 0.019999999999999997,-92.5 0.02181015465330515,-94.5 0.02378414230005442,-95.5 0.025936791093020196,-94.5 0.02828427124746191,-94.5 0.030844216508158825,-97.5 [etc.]
[Aside: Using the clipboard icon in the URL builder didn't work: it misses 'start=value'. But old-fashioned cut and paste works!]
This service indicates what time spans have had PSDs computed. Output is as a CSV (default) or JSON file.
Network,Station,Location,Channel,Sampling rate,Start time,End time,Is valid,Last update GE,NPW,,BHZ,20.0,2025-02-10T15:44:08.000000Z,2025-02-11T00:00:16.150000Z,True,2025-04-07T14:49:48.658037Z GE,NPW,,BHZ,20.0,2025-02-11T00:00:16.200000Z,2025-02-12T00:00:12.550000Z,True,2025-04-07T14:49:53.546990Z GE,NPW,,BHZ,20.0,2025-02-12T00:00:12.600000Z,2025-02-13T00:00:14.850000Z,True,2025-04-07T14:50:00.472485Z [...]This indicates that we only had PSDs starting from 2025-02-10 for this station, not 2025-01-01 as specified in the query.
There may be many reasons why PSDs are not available - data was not acquired, or transferred, or PSDs have not yet been computed for the data we have archived.
Note wild cards (?) are supported e.g. channel=??Z here.
You can use end=currentutcday in the query string to request information about channels up to the present day.