mseed2ascii [options] file1 [file2 file3 ...]
mseed2ascii converts miniSEED time-series data to ASCII formats, either simple text or GeoCSV. If an input file name is prefixed with an '@' character the file is assumed to contain a list of input data files, see LIST FILES below.
A separate output file is written for each continuous time-series in the input data. Output file names are of the form:
"Net.Sta.Loc.Chan.Qual.YYYY-MM-DDTHHMMSS.FFFFFF.txt" or "Net.Sta.Loc.Chan.Qual.YYYY-MM-DDTHHMMSS.FFFFFF.csv"
For example: "TA.ELFS..LHZ.R.2006-04-22T153619.000000.txt"
If the input file name is "-" input miniSEED records will be read from standard input.
-V
Print program version and exit.
-h
Print program usage and exit.
-v
Be more verbose. This flag can be used multiple times ("-v -v" or "-vv") for more verbosity.
-dr
Use the sampling rate derived from the start and end times and the number of samples instead of the rate specified in the input data. This is useful when the sample rate in the input data does not have enough resolution to represent the true rate.
-i
Process each input file individually. By default all input files are read and all data is buffered in memory before ASCII files are written. This allows time-series spanning mutilple input files to be merged and written in a single ASCII file. The intention is to use this option when processing large amounts of data in order to keep memory usage within reasonable limits.
-G
Produce GeoCSV formatted output. With this option multi-column sample lists are not allowed, i.e. the -c option is ignored.
-E key:value
Insert extra header with key and value into GeoCSV formatted output. This option may be specified multiple times.
-c cols
Specify the number of columns to use for sample list formatted output, default is 1 column.
-u units
Specify the units string that should be included in the ASCII output headers, the default is "Counts".
-m metafile
Specify a file containing metadata such as coordinates, elevation, component orientation, scaling factor, etc. For each time-series written any matching metadata will be added to the GeoCSV header. See METADATA FILES below.
-M metaline
Specify a "line" of metadata in the same format as expected for the METADATA FILES. This option may be specified multiple times.
-s
Scale the data, inversely, by the scale factor in metadata. Integer data will be converted to float type. The relevant units from the metadata will be reported in the header.
-f format
The default output format is sample list. This option applies to all output files:
1 : Sample list format, header includes time stamp of first 2 : Time-sample pair format, each sample value listed with time stamp
-o outfile
Write all ASCII output to outfile, if outfile is a single dash (-) then all output will go to stdout. If this option is not specified each contiguous segment is written to a separate file. All diagnostic output from the program is written to stderr and should never get mixed with data going to stdout.
-z zipfile
Create a ZIP archive containing all output files instead of writing individual files. Each file is compressed with the deflate method. Specify "-" (dash) to write ZIP archive to stdout.
-z0 zipfile
Same as "-z" except do not compress the output files. Specify "-" (dash) to write ZIP archive to stdout.
-r bytes
Specify the miniSEED record length in bytes, by default this is autodetected.
-tt secs
Specify a time tolerance for constructing continous trace segments. The tolerance is specified in seconds. The default tolerance is 1/2 of the sample period.
-rt diff
Specify a sample rate tolerance for constructing continous trace segments. The tolerance is specified as the difference between two sampling rates. The default tolerance is tested as: (abs(1-sr1/sr2) < 0.0001).
A metadata file contains a list of station parameters, some of which can be stored in GeoCSV but not in miniSEED. Each line in a metadata file should be a list of parameters in the order shown below. Each parameter should be separated with a comma (,) or a vertical bar (|).
DIP CONVENTION: When vertical bars are used the dip field is assumed to be in the SEED convention (degrees down from horizontal), if comma separators are used the dip field (CMPINC) is assumed to be in the SAC convention (degrees down from vertical up/outward) and converted to SEED convention.
Metdata fields:
Network Station Location Channel Latitude Longitude Elevation, in meters Depth, in meters Component Azimuth, degrees clockwise from north Component Dip, degrees from horizontal Instrument Name Scale Factor Scale Frequency Scale Units Sampling rate Start time, used for matching End time, used for matchingExample with vertical bar separators (with SEED convention dip):
#net|sta|loc|chan|lat|lon|elev|depth|azimuth|SEEDdip|instrument|scale|scalefreq|scaleunits|samplerate|start|end IU|ANMO|00|BH1|34.945981|-106.457133|1671|145|328|0|Geotech KS-54000|3456610000|0.02|M/S|20|2008-06-30T20:00:00|2599-12-31T23:59:59 IU|ANMO|00|BH2|34.945981|-106.457133|1671|145|58|0|Geotech KS-54000|3344370000|0.02|M/S|20|2008-06-30T20:00:00|2599-12-31T23:59:59 IU|ANMO|00|BHZ|34.945981|-106.457133|1671|145|0|-90|Geotech KS-54000|3275080000|0.02|M/S|20|2008-06-30T20:00:00|2599-12-31T23:59:59
As a special case '--' can be used to match an empty location code.
For each time-series written, metadata from the first line with matching source name parameters (network, station, location and channel) and time window (if specified) will be inserted into the GeoCSV headers. All parameters are optional except for the first four fields specifying the source name parameters.
If an input file is prefixed with an '@' character the file is assumed to contain a list of file for input. Multiple list files can be combined with multiple input files on the command line. The last, space separated field on each line is assumed to be the file name to be read.
An example of a simple text list:
TA.ELFS..LHE.R.mseed TA.ELFS..LHN.R.mseed TA.ELFS..LHZ.R.mseed
Chad Trabant IRIS Data Management Center
(man page 2018/03/15)