RESOURCES
Publications
Publications
Part of COSMOS’ mission is to standardize the collection, monitoring, archiving, and dissemination of data. These guidelines, reports, papers, and presentations are the first step toward developing international standards.
Journal of Seismology
Journal of Seismology Vol 26, Issue 4, August 2022
Special Issue of the Consortium of Organizations for Strong Motion Observation Systems (COSMOS) international guidelines for applying noninvasive geophysical techniques to characterize seismic site conditions.
Guideline for Inundation Protection of Strong Motion Instrumentation
March 17, 2016
Strong-motion instrumentation installed in areas prone to flooding or tsunami inundation shall be adequately protected from water damage. Recorders and associated components that could be damaged by water should be installed above the highest water level predicted to occur.
Guidelines for Strong-Motion Instrumentation of Tall Buildings
March 17, 2016
Strong-motion instrumentation installed in areas prone to flooding or tsunami inundation shall be adequately protected from water damage. Recorders and associated components that could be damaged by water should be installed above the highest water level predicted to occur.
Recommended Default Accelerograph Parameter Settings
Version 2.0, May 20, 2011
A goal of installing strong motion accelerographs is the recording of important strong-motion ground and building response data from significant earthquakes.
Recommended Minimum Set of Parameters in the Metadata of Strong-Motion Records
Version 2.0, May 20, 2011
An extensive set of parameters regarding a station, accelerograph and record are included in COSMOS Format Version 1.2 and the Virtual Tagged Format. The parameters are important for completeness, but there are so many that some networks may not conveniently be able to provide values for them.
Guidelines for Characterization of Strong-Motion Site Conditions
Version 0.5 (draft), May 20, 2011
Characterizing the conditions at a ground response site is important for the use of the recorded strong motion data in earthquake engineering and seismology.
Recommended Characterization of the Nearby Environment of a Ground Response Strong-Motion Station
Version 0.5 (draft), May 20, 2011
When characterizing the conditions of a ground response strong motion station it is important to include a description of the nearby environment, since near-site conditions may significantly influence the recorded motion.
Recommended Site Geologic Classification Descriptions
Version 0.5 (draft), May 20, 2011
Summary geologic classification descriptions are useful to complement quantitative characterizations of strong motion sites, or when quantitative characterization is not available.
Guidelines and Recommendations for Strong-Motion Record Processing and Commentary
June 25, 2005, CP-2005/01
Uniform standards for processing are not achievable at this time because of a variety of issues. That said, processing agencies are encouraged to use these recommended processing guidelines to provide a readily accessible, clear, and thorough description of the processing procedure used by their agency to provide a readily accessible, clear, and thorough description of the processing procedure used by their agency.
Guidelines for Installation of Advanced National Seismic System Strong-Motion Reference Stations
July 1, 2001
The purpose of earthquake strong-motion measurements within the Advanced National Seismic System (ANSS) is to quantitatively document large-amplitude earthquake ground shaking for use in various applications, including emergency response alerting, assessment, and research applications.
Urban Strong-Motion Reference Station Guidelines
January 19, 2000
In general the probabilistic maps should serve as a basis for planning, augmented by HAZUS maps of damage and loss which incorporate shaking probabilities, the infrastructure and structure inventory and its fragility, and the impacts of loss of function.
Summary: Technical Sessions/ Annual Meetings
2004-2008 Publication: CP-2009/01
The site-specific elastic response spectrum and associated suite of time series developed by engineering seismologists and geotechnical engineers for the design analysis or evaluation of structures to earthquakes represent the transfer of knowledge from seismologists to structural engineers.
Examples of Geotechnical Data & Document Management Systems in the United States
[Report on the PEER-LL 2L03 Project Presentation to AGS, June 11, 2008
Overview includes COSMOS/PEER-LL Geotechnical Virtual Data Center, Caltrans GeoDOG, and Systems developed by other State Transportation Agencies. ground and building response data from significant earthquakes.
Effects of Strong-Motion Processing Procedures on Time Histories, Elastic, and Inelastic
Publication: CP-2005/02
Web-based data dissemination technologies now permit seamless, efficient dissemination of strong-motion data over the Internet by linking multiple independent database providers through a central dissemination hub.
Vision 2005 for Earthquake Ground-Motion Measurement in the United States
[Preliminary Estimates of the Number and Location of Instrumentation Needed to Significantly Improve Public Earthquake Safety]
Tragic life and property losses from recent earthquakes dramatically illustrate the need to reduce the impact of future earthquakes to manageable levels. Quantitative measurements of damaging shaking using modern instrument technology provide an important new opportunity for significant progress. Thorough sets of shaking measurements on the ground and in man-made.
Strong-Motion Data Format
Version 1.20
Format flexibility is a key element of the COSMOS approach, allowing strong motion networks to produce data with wide choices. Even with this flexibility, a user can read the full range of variations with a single program as long as the format framework has been maintained.
