How to

This is a quick guide for installing and running BackTrackBB.


System requirements

  • python 2.7.x or >3.5
  • NumPy
  • SciPy
  • Matplotlib
  • ObsPy, available at: http://obspy.org
  • NonLinLoc - optional for time grid calculation (available here: http://alomax.free.fr/nlloc/). Otherwise can use any other way for calculating theoretical travel times.

Accepted data formats: formats supported by ObsPy


Installation

Decompress the package and run:

pip install .

Optionally, if you plan to edit the source code, you can install in “editable” mode:

pip install -e .

This will install the following scripts in your path:

  • btbb ? the main code
  • mbf_plot ? plotting of multiband filtering and signal processing
  • group_triggers ? post-processing tool for removing duplicate detections
  • bt2eventdata ? cut event waveforms from continuous streams

Using virtual environment:

We recommend you to use virtual environment (also called virtualenv) for creating an isolated local Python setup that will contain all the requirements listed above before installing BackTrackBB. This will help keeping your project-based environment independent from the main system setup. Any changes (upgrades) you make to the project will not affect any others you are also working on.

If you do not already have virtualenv on you machine you can install it via pip:

pip install virtualenv

Once installed, you can create a virtual environment for a project:

$ virtualenv venv_project

This will create a folder venv_project which will contain the Python executable files, and a copy of the pip library which can be used to install other packages.

Activate the virtual environment using following command:

$ source my_project/bin/activate

You can now use your virtual environment and install packages using pip install. Now, any packages installed will be placed in venv_project folder, isolated from the global Python installations.

To deactivate the virtual environment use:

$ deactivate

For more details and information on how to install and use virtual environment refer to these links:

https://virtualenv.pypa.io/en/latest/

http://docs.python-guide.org/en/latest/dev/virtualenvs/


Optional external packages:

In case you want to use NonLinLoc to calculate the 3D time-grids, download it from Anthony Lomax’s website http://alomax.free.fr/nlloc/. You only need to be able to call Vel2Grid and Grid2Time correctly.



Running detection and location code

To run the main detection and location code execute:

$ btbb examples/congig_file.conf

You need to provide a configuration file containing the description of parameters required by the code.



Config file and parameters

Below is a description of the basic parameters you should specify:

  • ncpu - is a number of CPUs that will be used for running the code:
    • ncpu = 1: corresponds to serial version (useful for debugging)
    • ncpu > 1: will run parallel version of the code in which detection and location for each position of sliding window will be performed as different process
  • stations - list of station names to be used for location. Should be separated by , and be the same as in the header of the data file
  • channel - name of the channel component (EW,NS,UD). Should use the same as in the header of the data file
  • data_dir - path to the directory containing the data
  • wave_type - type of the phase assume for location (P/S or P & S)
  • data_type - data format (‘SAC’, ‘mseed’,’gse2’,...)
  • data_dir - path to the directory containing the data
  • grid_dir - path to the directory containing the theoretical travel-time grids for corresponding phase assumption
  • out_dir - path to the directory where the outputs of the run will be saved (will be created by the code if does not exist)
  • sample_rate_data - sampling rate of the analyzed data. All the data will be resampled to this sampling rate before the analysis starts
  • sample_rate_cf - sampling rate of the CFs. All the CFs will be resampled to this sampling rate (using lower sampling rate for CF can be useful for reducing the calculation times)
  • decay_const - value in seconds of decay constant \(T_{decay}\) that will be used for calculatin CF (kurtosis/envelope)
  • ch_function - type of CF. Options available are kurtosis (HOS \(2^{nd}\) order) or envelope
  • win_type:
    • if True frequency-dependent \(T_{decay}\) will be used
    • if False a constant \(T_{decay}\) = decay_const will be used for time-frequency CF calculation
  • recursive_memory:
    • if True uses recursive memory mechanism for the multi-band filter (MBF) and CF calculation on a window-by-window basis. This setting can be useful for increasing the computational speed and optimizing the usage of the memory.
    • if False (default value) the MBF and CF calculations will be done on the entire data-set read to the memory.
  • f_min - lower frequency \(f_{min}\) of the MBF
  • f_max - lower frequency \(f_{min}\) of the MBF
  • n_freq_bands - number of frequency bands \(N_{band}\) between f_min and f_max for the filter-bank
  • band_spacing - choose between liniarly (lin) and logarithmically (log) spaces frequency bands for MBF filter
  • time_lag - (in seconds) defines at the same time value of maximum lag in local cross-correlation, and size of sliding time-window. Should be set to the maximum possible travel-time between the two furtherst stations
  • maxSTA_distance - maximum distance (in km) between the pair of stations that will be used for detection and location
  • t_overlap - overlap (in seconds) between the two consecutive time windows
  • start_t - position of the first time-window (in seconds) from the begining of the record
  • end_t - position of the last time-window (in seconds) from the begining of the record
  • dt_min - maximum time difference (in seconds) between the picked and theoretical travel-time used for calculating the origin time
  • do_smooth_lcc - will run a 2D Gaussian smoothing over the LCC function
  • smooth_lcc - value (in seconds) for Gaussian time-findow smoothing for LCC
  • cut_data - set True if want to cut a smaller length of data for analysis
  • cut_start - cutting start time (in seconds) from the begining of the record
  • cut_delta - length (in seconds) of data to cut
  • trigger - set value of detection threshold
  • lat_orig - latitude of the origin of XYZ grid used for detection and location
  • lon_orig - latitude of the origin of XYZ grid used for detection and location
  • plot_waveforms - option for plotting the seismograms on the final plot (True/False)
  • plot_format - select output format for the plotting (png/pdf)

An example configuration file BT_ChileExample.conf:

#--number of CPU's-------------------------------------------------------
ncpu = 1
#--station names---------------------------------------------------------
stations = QF17,G07S,QF05,G02S,QC12,QF16,G03S,QF12,G11S,G06S,U67B,U51B,U45B,G08S,U66B,U65B,G09S,U46B,QF14,G12S,U56B,G13S
channel = HHZ
wave_type = 'P'
#--settings for input data files-----------------------------------------
data_type = 'mseed'
data_dir = 'examples/data/data_Chile'
grid_dir = 'examples/grids/grids_Chile'
#
out_dir = 'out_example_Chile/'
#-----------------------------------------------------------------------
sampl_rate_data = 100.
sampl_rate_cf = 50.
#------------------------------------------------------------------------
decay_const = 1.00
ch_function = 'kurtosis'
win_type = False
#--Parameters for the MBF analysis--------------------------------------
f_min = 0.02
f_max = 49.
n_freq_bands = 20
band_spacing = log
#------------------------------------------------------------------------
time_lag = 20.
maxSTA_distance = 100.
#--Parameters for the sliding window------------------------------------
t_overlap = 17.
start_t = 33.
end_t = 35.
#
dt_min = 1.0
#---LCC calculatioin settings-------------------------------------------
do_smooth_lcc = False
smooth_lcc = 0.1
#------------------------------------------------------------------------
cut_data = False
cut_start = 0.
cut_delta = 180.
#------------------------------------------------------------------------
trigger = 0.7
#--geogr. coordinates for the origin of the coordinate system-----------
lat_orig = -35.404
lon_orig = -73.000
#--parameters for plotting----------------------------------------------
plot_waveforms = True
plot_format = png


Outputs

Run the example provided with the code:

$ btbb examples/BT_ChileExample.conf

use of var time window for location: False
Number of traces in stream =  22
Number of time windows =  1
frequencies for filtering in (Hz): [  2.00000000e-02   3.01583209e-02   4.54762160e-02   6.85743157e-02
1.03404311e-01   1.55925020e-01   2.35121839e-01   3.54543993e-01
5.34622576e-01   8.06165961e-01   1.21563059e+00   1.83306887e+00
2.76411396e+00   4.16805178e+00   6.28507216e+00   9.47736116e+00
1.42910650e+01   2.15497261e+01   3.24951778e+01   4.90000000e+01]
starting BPmodule
Running on 1 thread
22
20100401_1253A X 5.0 Y 33.0 Z 16.0 MaxStack 0.858 Ntraces 22 BEG 33.0 END 53.0  LAT -34.70242 LON -72.04541 T_ORIG 2010-04-01T12:53:05.343609Z

Since in the configuration file BT_ChileExample.conf ouput directory is set to 'out_example_Chile/' all the outputs will be redirected there

$ ls out_example_Chile/

10040112_20fq0.0_49.0hz_1.050.00.117.0_kurtosis_HHZ_P_trig0.7_FIG2.png
0040112_20fq0.0_49.0hz_1.050.00.117.0_kurtosis_HHZ_P_trig0.7_OUT2.dat
10040112_t0033.0s_0.0_49.0_fig.png

where

  • *_FIG2.png is a summary plot of triggered locations
  • *_fig.png format for the plots for each position of the sliding time-window
  • *_OUT2.dat summary data file providing the information on the triggered locations and the picked and theoretical arrival times from this location for each station