SEED-Vault: A New Software Package for Browsing, Downloading, and Archiving Continuous and Event-Based Seismic Data via FDSN

Abstract We present SEED-Vault, a new open-source software package to facilitate the downloading and archiving of seismic data from International Federation of Digital Seismograph Networks (FDSN) servers. This code is built around the ObsPy package and expands on most current software by allowing the user to choose between three common workflows in seismology, in addition to offering both a straightforward graphical user interface (GUI) and a scriptable command-line interface (CLI) for large or recurring archival tasks. The GUI runs in a web browser, offering easy cross-platform compatibility to quickly browse events, stations, and earthquake arrivals, as well as download metadata, waveform data, and network references and DOIs in BibTeX format. The code can also be run via CLI for large or automated requests, which allows both novice and advanced users to easily download large datasets and keep their local archive in sync with remote FDSN servers. Downloaded data are stored and cross-referenced by an SQLite database to ensure that requests are tailored and combined to avoid unnecessary or repeated downloads. The code (available via PyPI as “seed-vault”) is still under active development and is now on version 1.1.0, its 12th release.