GlobalQuake v0.11.0_pre-1

Key features in 0.11.0:

🤯 Drastically reduced RAM consumption (only ~1.76GB of RAM required for every 5,000 stations, assuming default waveform buffer size of 5 minutes)

Renewed magnitude calculations for large events

• New magnitude calculation formulas that should be capable of reasonably estimating the size of even the largest quakes (even M8+), that were tested on number of past significant events and the results are very optimistic! >90% of the events were estimated only with just +-0.3M difference (previously all major earthquakes would get significantly underestimated)

New magnitude calculations were tested on number of major historical earthquakes, including the Mw9.1 2011 Tōhoku earthquake


New magnitude formulas were calibrated using available past waveform data from major events and should be reasonably accurate even for the largest events, although still very experimental!

Playground mode (beta!)

In playground mode, you can easily create earthquake scenarios at any place on Earth.

• Press R, rotate the globe to the place you want to insert stations and press SPACE. A dialog will pop up where you can specify the number of stations to be inserted as well as the radius in which the stations will be randomly generated.
• Press E to create a simulated earthquake similarly as the stations. You can specify it's magnitude and depth.
• The earthquake will originate at the moment you press OK in the dialog. You will be able to see the simulated quake as white waves spreading from the epicenter
• Once enough stations pick the artificial waveform, GlobalQuake will try to locate the earthquake hypocenter the same way it does with real events and you will see all the relevant information displayed.
• You can toggle the artificial quake visibility by pressing F.
• Use LEFT or RIGHT arrow key to fast backward / forward the time.

⚠️ Work is in progress to implement the (yet missing) functionality to select specific simulation time, change stations sensitivity and random delay. Stay tuned for the full release.

Waves progress bar

Progress bar for visualizing waves before they emerge on the surface. Very useful for deep events

Full changelog will be available with full 0.11.0 version release

• Another reason for this pre-release is to enable your connection to our GlobalQuake server, which will soon be updating to version 0.11.0 with the updated magnitude formulas.

GlobalQuake v0.10.1

What's new

Version 0.10.1 focuses on adding various helpful settings related to sound alarms and much more. It also fixes some rare crashes that were previously reported in 0.10.0.

Sounds tab

• You can now fine-tune the volume of each sound alarm together with the ability to test it's functionality.
• Each sound alarm contains description of it's meaning and trigger conditions.
• You no longer need to restart GlobalQuake in order to change the sound effect. Simply click Reload button and the .wav file will be loaded straight from the sounds directory which can now be easily accessed by clicking Open Sounds Folder button.
• Note that some custom sound effects are still not created in version 0.10.1 and they are simply a blank audio files!
  

Pings tab

• You can now finally customize the conditions under which the various sound effects / pings play
• In the first box, you can select the radius for potential shaking pings. Those are the level_x.wav sounds and they trigger even if the earthquake itself isn't localized yet.
• In the second box, you can customize the conditions for all earthquake-related alerts. This can be helpful when you want to limit the magnitude of earthquakes that produce sounds. The earthquakes itself will however still be displayed on the map. An option to completely disable earthquakes under certain magnitude is planned soon in next versions.
• Finally, there is a box for customizing the EEW sound alert conditions. This sound effect is not yet available at default and you have to upload your own .wav file!
• You can find the explanation of "Cluster levels" in the sounds settings.
  

Other Notable changes

• Timezone is now toggle-able
• New function to filter old earthquakes by quality
• Fix rare crash caused by concurrent modification of data and rendering
• Fix rare crash when dragging on map
• Various tweaks and bug fixes related to earthquake detection
• VOLUME FOLDER FIX by @TBMSP in #206

New Contributors

• @TBMSP made their first contribution in #206

For Windows users

• Simply run the newer version of the installer and it will upgrade your GlobalQuake version to 0.10.1. All your files and settings will be kept.
• Side note: If you need more RAM allocation for GlobalQuake, use the installer with the v2 in the name

Full Changelog: v0.10.0...v0.10.1

GlobalQuake v0.10.0

Changes since last full release (0.9.8 -> 0.10.0)

GlobalQuake Servers 🖥️

• Version 0.10.0 introduces a major new feature - GlobalQuake Servers. This enhancement goes beyond the current local setup of GlobalQuake, where your machine manages all seedlink connections and data processing. With the introduction of GlobalQuake Servers, users will have the option to connect to a dedicated server built to handle the hard work. This results in a significant reduction in RAM and CPU usage for client instances, as well as a substantial decrease in network traffic to the seedlink servers.
• You can try running your own GlobalQuake Server at home by downloading the executable here: GlobalQuakeServer
• GlobalQuake currently doesn't have the resources (nor budget) to run a dedicated server with high capacity for everyone, although we have one testing server available for you to connect to with global station coverage, so ask on our Discord if you are interested :) https://discord.gg/hDNCaJPGYz

Customizable sound effects 🔉

• You can now customize your GlobalQuake experience by using your own sound effects by modifying the audio files inside the directory .GlobalQuakeData/sounds/
• Note that no custom sounds are currently available for eew_warning.wav, felt_strong.wav and level_4.wav and those audio files are blank.

• level_x: based on certain thresholds of intensity measured at seismic stations (level_0 triggers when any possible shaking is detected, level_4 triggers when there's a lot of red stations)
• found: when earthquake epicenter is initially found and displayed on the map.
• update: earthquake parameters got updated (revision)
• felt, felt_strong: when shaking threshold or strong shaking threshold is expected at your home location respectively
• intensify: when alert conditions are met (Alert settings tab)
• countdown: 10 beeps for 10 last seconds before S waves reach your home location. Only if shaking is expected.
• eew_warning: strong earthquake occurred (MMI VI+ and low uncertainty)

Shaking intensity estimation in cities near the epicenter

• GlobalQuake can now display estimated shaking intensity in cities near the epicenter in MMI/Shindo scale.
• At the bottom, you can see an estimate on how much total population might've been affected by the earthquake.

More notable changes

• Capital cities displayed on the map as small white squares
• Adjustable timeout for seedlink networks
• Potential shaking are marked with colored squares based on the intensity ("clusters")
• Ability to parse sensor type from FDSNWS. Station shapes can be configured to respect the sensor type (accelerometer, seismometer, displacement measurement)
• Magnitude calculation can now take the station type and sensitivity into account. This has clearly improved the magnitude estimations accuracy (although this still only applies to magnitudes up to ~6.5M)
• Seismic waves fade-out effect

Contributions

• Expanding on tutorial for downloading and installing #95 by @CentreMetre in #116
• Added a revised dataset from EMSC's lookup tool by @DecryptingElectrons in #163
• Changed geojson to match specification by @DecryptingElectrons in #165
• Bump org.json:json from 20230227 to 20231013 in /GlobalQuakeCore by @dependabot in #170
• Added New Zealand districts to region dataset by @DecryptingElectrons in #172
• Added Italian Provinces to the region dataset by @DecryptingElectrons in #173
• Added Ligurian Sea and other fine borders by @DecryptingElectrons in #176
• Closest shoreline distance by @pmia712 in #182
• Added Japan prefectures to region dataset by @DecryptingElectrons in #189

New Contributors

• @CentreMetre made their first contribution in #116
• @dependabot made their first contribution in #170
• @hbkb001 made their first contribution in #175
• @pmia712 made their first contribution in #182

Windows Installer 🪟

We have provided a Windows installer for your convenience. GlobalQuake will be installed in your home directory C:/Users/(your_username) to avoid frequent problem with files and directories creation. However, due to potential system configurations and variations, there might be cases where the installer doesn't work as expected.

Make sure you have Java version 17 or 21 installed before running the installer, otherwise it will probably not work.

In case you encounter any issues with the Windows installer, we recommend using the .jar executable file as an alternative.

Full Changelog: v0.9.8...v0.10.0

GlobalQuake v0.10.0_pre18

One of the final pre-releases for version 0.10.0, with the goal to make sure all the new features work properly before releasing full version.

New method for calculating earthquake magnitude 🎯

Sensor type and sensor sensitivity is now taken into account when calculating earthquake magnitude. This new method has proven itself to be much more accurate when comparing the results with seismological agencies.
Your station database will upgrade when launching this new version. You might need to select your stations again. It is recommended to backup the data before every update

Custom and modifiable sounds 🔔

Upon startup, GlobalQuake will export the existing sound alarms into a new directory .GlobalQuakeData/sounds, where you can customize them as you like. This will take effect after restarting GlobalQuake

Wider sound support from server 🔉

GlobalQuake will now play all the sounds even when connected to server (previously, only 4 sounds were supported). This includes sounds that play even before actual earthquake is found, allowing for quicker alarm.

Station shape 🔺

You can now select between 3 options: circles, triangles and based on sensor type.

Potential shaking areas 🔲

• You can now opt to see the potential shaking areas (Clusters) in Settings -> Debug -> Display Clusters. They will appear as a flashing rotated squares colored by intensity.

Other improvements:

• Seismic waves fade out as they are expected to get unnoticeable
• Many other smaller improvements and bug-fixes
• Old earthquakes now store the actual predicted maximum intensity on land, instead of directly in the epicenter
• Uncertain epicenters are displayed with "?" icon instead of cross (X)

Feel free to report any possible bugs or errors on our Discord server here: https://discord.gg/J2t658EHHk

GlobalQuake v0.10.0_pre15

• You can now view the station waveform when connected to server
• Fixed critical memory leaks (in CUDA library)
• Improve magnitude calculation from accelerometers (it was underestimating before)
• Improved seedlink reader so that it can balance the traffic within multiple instances of the same server
• Shakemap can be toggled in settings
• Accelerometers can be displayed as inverted triangles (toggle-able in settings)
• Added Italian Provinces to the region dataset thanks to @DecryptingElectrons
• Improve Dockerfile for server so that the image is much smaller now
• Improved pom.xml file so that the entire project can now be compiled and built using the mvn package command
• Various other improvements

GlobalQuake v0.10.0_pre10

Release Highlights:

• Enhanced Server-Side Performance: This release prioritizes improvements to the GlobalQuake Server, addressing bugs and introducing various refinements.

• New Zealand regions: Thanks to the contribution from @DecryptingElectrons, certain region borders have been refined for improved precision.

• User Experience: Several output messages have been enhanced to be clearer and more informative.

• Bug Fix: Resolved an issue where resolution calibration was skipped in Local computing mode.

• Optimized GPU Calculations: The CUDA earthquake parameter calculations have been optimized for improved efficiency, leveraging GPU capabilities. Note that the CUDA GlobalQuake library is not available as default and requires a special build and setup process. A tutorial will be added in the future.

Note that your GlobalQuake client needs to have the same version as the server you want to connect to :)

GlobalQuake v0.10.0_pre4

GlobalQuake Servers

• The upcoming 0.10.x version line is going to bring a major new feature - GlobalQuake Servers. This enhancement goes beyond the current local setup of GlobalQuake, where your machine manages all seedlink connections and data processing. With the introduction of GlobalQuake Servers, users will have the option to connect to a dedicated server built to handle the hard work. This results in a significant reduction in RAM and CPU usage for client instances, as well as a substantial decrease in network traffic to the seedlink servers.
• Note that this feature is very early in development right now and the servers need to go trough a lot of testing first before it can be considered to launch them for general public.
• Downloads are available here for you to try: GlobalQuakeServer

Major code refactoring

• The entire GlobalQuake code-base has been split into 4 modules. This was necessary to maintain the support for local computing and server computing at the same time.
• The GlobalQuakeAPI module contains the code needed to communicate between client and server
• GlobalQuakeCore contains all the shared functionality of client and server instances. This includes all the data processing as well as the common UI components
• GlobalQuakeClient and GlobalQuakeServer modules containing the corresponding functionality for client and server implementations

GPU acceleration of Earthquake parameters calculation

• GlobalQuake now supports computation of earthquake parameters on GPU using CUDA architecture. This is going to be relevant mainly for the servers, but activating it locally is also going to be a possibility if you have NVIDIA graphics card in your system.
• Details on how to set this up will be released later when this functionality is stable and configurable to wider variety of NVIDIA Cards.

Other additions

• Rendering engine has been upgraded to avoid some graphics glitches that were happening while moving the globe
• Region names update: Thanks to the efforts of @DecryptingElectrons, region names are now upgraded to contain much more places as well as offshore locations, so instead of "Chile" and "In the middle of nowhere" the earthquake location will now read "Atacama, Chile" and "Northern Atlantic Ocean" for example :)
• Connection status now displayed at the bottom when connected to server
• No need to restart GQ now in case server restarts

GlobalQuake 0.9.9_pre5

• GlobalQuake now shows it's own version of ShakeMaps in hexagonal structure, where each hexagon has its estimated intensity and color based on the earthquake magnitude, depth and distance. Also they are hidden in seas / oceans.
• Estimated intensities have been revised to be more realistic by showing high intensities closer to epicenter
• Maximum intensity is now calculated only on land to avoid displaying high intensity for earthquakes that are far offshore
• Testing a few custom sound effects - subject to changes! You can leave your opinion on our Discord :)

GlobalQuake 0.9.9_pre1

• Changed minimum main window size so it is more scalable
• Alert box at the bottom is now toggle-able in settings
• Latest data time is now toggle-able in settings

GlobalQuake 0.9.8

In this version, GlobalQuake is now able to self-determine the quality of detected earthquakes and comes with many graphics improvements.

Graphics improvements

Main earthquake box has been redesigned, giving it more modern look

The quality is determined based on the parameters below and can have values of S, A, B, C, D, where S is the best quality, meaning that the earthquake is very likely detected correctly, whereas D is suggesting a potential false alarm

Toggleable additional earthquake information box

The earthquake quality is determined based on the worst rating from these 6 parameters. Those are:

• Depth uncertainty
• Origin time uncertainty
• Location uncertainty (North to South)
• Location uncertainty (East to West)
• Number of associated stations
• Percentage of stations matching P wave arrival

Alert popup box moved to the main window and improved

Alert box displays warning for Your home location based on your settings in Alerts tab. It has 3 levels of warning:

• Earthquake detected nearby (blue)
• Shaking is expected (yellow)
• Strong shaking is expected (red)

It displays the estimated intensity at your home location as well as wave arrival times in seconds. Also the thresholds for the yellow and red warnings can be toggled in settings based on the expected intensity. You can also customize if you want the main window to focus in case of a warning or set if the globe should jump immediately to warned quake.

Other enhancements

• Together with graphics update, this new version also brings improved detection accuracy using a new variety of methods. GlobalQuake will now greatly benefit when many stations are associated into an event and in result, the calculated epicenters are now sometimes spot on the official reports.
• New settings were introduced in this version. Feel free to explore the settings window to see what's new, especially in the Alerts and Graphics tab :)

Full Changelog: v0.9.7...v0.9.8

Thanks everyone for your awesome support, ideas and recommendations for this project! ❤️
To truly express your gratitude for my hard work, you might want to think about making a coffee donation here: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/jakubspangl