This is the Readme file for the GIPPtools software distribution.

About

The Geophysical Instrument Pool Potsdam (GIPP) provides seismic and magnetotelluric recorders as well as sensors for academic research. It is hosted by the Helmholtz-Zentrum Potsdam Deutsches GeoForschungsZenrum. The GIPPtools have been created to provide a collection of software utilities that aid with initial pre-processing of recorded (seismic) data supporting users that borrow instruments from the GIPP.

All programs in the GIPPtools collection are designed and tested to work with files written by Data-Cube3 recorders (produced by DiGOS Potsdam GmbH) and with miniSEED files written by EDR-209/210 and PR6-24 Portable Field Recorder (both produced by the Earth Data Division of the Kenda Group). However, there is absolutely no reason why the utilities should not work with miniSEED or Cube files produced by other instruments or software as well.

The programs will help you to "manage" your recorded data and to prepare the dataset for import into whatever processing system you use for further scientific analysis. You can use the utilities, among other things, to convert, re-organize and cut out (seismic) data from miniSEED and Cube data files.

Requirements

There are two requirements that must be met to run the programs in the GIPPtools package:

  1. A working Java virtual machine (sometimes also called a Java Runtime Environment or simply JRE) supporting Java 8 or newer!

  2. Some console or terminal window on your computer where you can type commands. None of the GIPPtools programs utilizes a graphical user interface. They all take their parameters and options exclusively from the command line!

Download

Since you are reading this, you probably already obtained a GIPPtools copy somehow. Nevertheless, you might want to check with the "Software" section at the GIPP web page for the latest release.

There are two binary distributions. One is for Unix style operating systems such as Linux, Solaris, etc. and one for the Microsoft Windows family. (Mac OS X users should use the Unix release.) The main difference between the distributions is the start script used to run the various GIPPtool programs. Apart from that they are functionally identical.

Installation

The installation instructions can be found in the Install file located in the documentation subdirectory. The ReleaseHistory file in the same directory contains a brief list of user relevant changes between the different GIPPtool releases.

Documentation

You can find all documentation in the doc subdirectory of the GIPPtools installation directory. It is not fully developed yet, but it will get you started. All documentation files are provided in HTML and PDF format. The GIPPtools distribution for Unix operating systems contains an additional documentation set in the man subdirectory, ready for display by the standard Unix man command.

The documentation directory also contains some example files you might want to use as templates for your own projects.

Contact

GIPPtools are written and maintained by Christof Lendl (lendl@gfz-potsdam.de). If you are having trouble installing and/or running the software, feel free to e-mail me. However, please study the documentation before contacting me. I’m not your ghostreader!

When reporting bugs, please be sure to include the GIPPtools release number you are using as well as the platform you are running it on.

See also the GIPP home page on the web: http://www.gfz-potsdam.de/gipp