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Helicorder Plotter

Helicorder Plotter is a Python-based tool that fetches seismic waveform data from FDSN web services, generates 24-hour helicorder (dayplot) images with earthquake event annotations, and produces a self-contained static website for browsing the results — including an interactive Leaflet map of all station locations.

How It Works

config.ini          FDSN dataselect         IRIS event service
     │                    │                        │
     ▼                    ▼                        ▼
read_station_config  get_waveforms         fetch_earthquake_events
     │                    │                        │
     │                    ▼                        │
     │              ObsPy Stream ──────────────────┘
     │                    │
     │                    ▼
     │           create_helicorder()
     │            ├─ full-res PNG
     │            └─ thumbnail PNG
     │                    │
     ▼                    ▼
generate_html()    copy_static_files()
     │
     ▼
helicorder_plots/
 ├── index.html
 ├── map_view.html
 ├── station_data.json
 ├── <station>.html  (one per station)
 ├── <station>.png
 ├── <station>_thumb.png
 └── static/
      ├── css/styles.css
      └── js/main.js

Pipeline Steps

  1. Configuration — Station definitions (network, station, channel, location) are read from config.ini.
  2. Earthquake events — Recent significant earthquakes (M5.5+, last 24 hours) are fetched from the IRIS FDSN event service to annotate the plots.
  3. Waveform retrieval — For each station, 24 hours of waveform data is requested from a local (or remote) FDSN dataselect service. Requests are parallelised across stations using a process pool.
  4. Plot generation — Each waveform stream is rendered as a helicorder dayplot via ObsPy, with earthquake events overlaid as annotations. A thumbnail is generated alongside the full-resolution image.
  5. HTML generation — Jinja2 templates produce an index page with thumbnail grid, individual station detail pages, and an interactive Leaflet map that plots each station's geographic coordinates.

Requirements

Python Dependencies

Listed in requirements.txt:

Package Purpose
ObsPy Waveform I/O, dayplot rendering, UTCDateTime
matplotlib Plotting backend (used by ObsPy)
Pillow Thumbnail generation
requests HTTP requests to FDSN services
Jinja2 HTML template rendering

Installation

git clone https://github.com/comoglu/helicorder-plotter.git
cd helicorder-plotter

python -m venv venv
source venv/bin/activate   # Windows: venv\Scripts\activate

pip install -r requirements.txt

Configuration

Station List (config.ini)

Each section defines a station to plot. The section name is Network.Station:

[AU.CNB]
detecstream = BHZ
deteclocid = 00

[AU.CTA]
detecstream = BHZ
deteclocid =
Key Description
detecstream SEED channel code (e.g. BHZ, SHZ, HHZ, EHZ)
deteclocid SEED location code (e.g. 00, 01, or empty for --)

Service URLs (run.py)

Edit the constants at the top of run.py to point at your data sources:

BASE_URL = "http://127.0.0.1:18081"                           # FDSN dataselect + station service
EVENT_SERVICE_URL = "http://service.iris.edu/fdsnws/event/1/query"  # Earthquake event service

BASE_URL should point to a server that exposes both /fdsnws/dataselect/1/query and /fdsnws/station/1/query endpoints.

Usage

python run.py

The script will:

  1. Validate the station configuration
  2. Fetch M5.5+ earthquake events from the last 24 hours
  3. Download waveforms for each configured station (in parallel)
  4. Generate helicorder dayplots with event annotations
  5. Build a static HTML site in the helicorder_plots/ directory

Open helicorder_plots/index.html in a browser to view the results.

Output Structure

helicorder_plots/
├── index.html                 # Thumbnail grid of all stations
├── map_view.html              # Interactive Leaflet map
├── station_data.json          # Station coordinates for the map
├── AU.CNB.00.BHZ.html         # Individual station detail page
├── AU.CNB.00.BHZ.png          # Full-resolution helicorder plot
├── AU.CNB.00.BHZ_thumb.png    # Thumbnail
├── static/
│   ├── css/styles.css
│   └── js/main.js
└── ...

Logs

Log files are written to logs/ with timestamps (e.g. logs/helicorder_plotter_20260318_120000.log). Both file and console logging are enabled.

Project Structure

helicorder-plotter/
├── run.py                  # Entry point and configuration constants
├── config.ini              # Station definitions
├── requirements.txt        # Python dependencies
├── src/
│   ├── __init__.py
│   ├── data_fetcher.py     # Config parsing, FDSN requests, station info
│   ├── plot_generator.py   # Helicorder plot creation, parallel processing
│   ├── html_generator.py   # Jinja2 HTML generation, static file copying
│   └── utils.py            # Logging setup, timing decorator
├── templates/
│   ├── all_stations.html   # Index page template
│   ├── station.html        # Individual station page template
│   └── map_view.html       # Leaflet map template
└── static/
    ├── css/styles.css      # Shared stylesheet
    └── js/main.js          # Map initialisation script

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License — see the LICENSE file for details.