On March 1st, 2008 the EarthScope Data Portal (ESDP) successfully reached it’s alpha milestone release. With the release the Portal provides basic search and data access capabilities that allow users to discover and access Earth Scope data using spatial, temporal, and other metadata-based conditions.

The ESDP is currently undergoing testing by a select group of about 14 users. Initial testing is being concentrated on UI design issues. The ESDP uses a distributed web service architecture. The front end Portal, which is currently hosted at the San Diego Super Computer Center (SDSC) communicates with back end data web services hosted by IRIS, UNAVCO and SAFOD (ICDP). The portal communicates with the back end servers via the SOAP protocol and an agreed upon WSDL document.

For the alpha release, the IRIS data center is providing raw miniSEED waveform data and SPADE data products. Future releases will also include Quality assured seismic waveform data, quality assurance parameters, magnetotelluric waveform data, event phase picks, hypercenter catalogs and record sections.