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Advanced ground motion simulation capabilities developed using a software integration approach

The Southern California Earthquake Center (SCEC) develops advanced ground motion simulation capabilities by integrating specialized research codes into software systems. SCEC constructs software systems that can perform advanced ground motion simulations by linking ground motion computational stages together, enabling software modules to exchange intermediate data products, and extending research calculations with multiple computational stages. This software integration-based method for developing advanced ground motion simulation methods has proven to be a highly productive software development approach for several reasons. Academic and governmental research groups are often the developers behind new ground motion research codes, and it is difficult for small research groups to manage and sustain development for large software packages. However, these small research groups can frequently produce specialized ground motion software programs that are useful as part of larger ground motion calculations. Advanced ground motion simulation models often decompose their processing into stages such as rupture simulations, low frequency simulations, high frequency simulations, and non-linear site effects models, so it is difficult for a single code to represent the state-of-the-art in all areas. SCEC has developed advanced ground motion computational software tools including the Broadband Platform, which calculates synthetic ground motion time series at frequencies up to 10Hz, and the CyberShake Platform, which performs physics-based probabilistic seismic hazard analysis, through software integration of multiple research codes. SCEC’s software integration approach defines file and database interfaces between software modules, and implements processing sequences as workflows. These software integration constructs help produce uniquely capable and advanced ground motion simulation capabilities on computational scales from laptops to NSF Track 1 supercomputers. In this presentation, we will discuss the capabilities of these ground motion simulation software tools and described how they were constructed using a software integration approach.

Author(s):

Philip Maechling    
University of Southern California
United States

Fabio Silva    
University of Southern California
United States

Scott Callaghan    
University of Southern California
United States

Kevin Milner    
University of Southern California
United States

David Gill    
University of Southern California
United States

Thomas Jordan    
University of Southern California
United States