California Institute of Technology Data Select API

openapi: 3.2.0
info:
  title: SCEDC FDSN Web Services (Caltech Seismological Laboratory) Data Select API
  version: 1.1.1
  summary: FDSN-standard seismic web services operated by the Southern California Earthquake Data Center at the Caltech Seismological Laboratory.
  description: The Southern California Earthquake Data Center (SCEDC) is operated by the Seismological Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology, on Caltech's own `caltech.edu` domain and Caltech-run infrastructure (service.scedc.caltech.edu resolves inside Caltech address space). It implements the International Federation of Digital Seismograph Networks (FDSN) web service specification — `fdsnws-event`, `fdsnws-station` and `fdsnws-dataselect`. This is genuinely institution-operated research infrastructure, not a vendor platform running under Caltech's name. This document is DERIVED by API Evangelist from live, unauthenticated probes; SCEDC publishes a WADL per service but no OpenAPI. Only operations actually observed returning data are described.
  contact:
    name: Southern California Earthquake Data Center, Caltech Seismological Laboratory
    url: https://scedc.caltech.edu/
servers:
- url: https://service.scedc.caltech.edu/fdsnws
  description: SCEDC production FDSN web services (verified live 2026-08-19)
tags:
- name: DataSelect
  description: Time-series waveform retrieval (fdsnws-dataselect).
paths:
  /dataselect/1/version:
    get:
      operationId: getDataSelectServiceVersion
      summary: Service version for fdsnws-dataselect
      description: Verified live 2026-08-19 returning `1.1.0` as text/plain.
      tags:
      - DataSelect
      responses:
        '200':
          description: Service version string.
          content:
            text/plain:
              schema:
                type: string
                examples:
                - 1.1.0
  /dataselect/1/application.wadl:
    get:
      operationId: getDataSelectWadl
      summary: WADL description of fdsnws-dataselect
      description: SCEDC's own machine-readable service description. Verified live 2026-08-19 returning application/xml. This is the only machine-readable contract SCEDC itself publishes for the service.
      tags:
      - DataSelect
      responses:
        '200':
          description: WADL document.
          content:
            application/xml:
              schema:
                type: string
  /dataselect/1/query:
    get:
      operationId: queryWaveforms
      summary: Retrieve time-series waveform data
      description: Returns miniSEED waveform data for the requested network, station, channel and time window. Verified live 2026-08-19 returning HTTP 204 for a window with no available data — the FDSN-standard no-data response.
      tags:
      - DataSelect
      parameters:
      - name: net
        in: query
        schema:
          type: string
      - name: sta
        in: query
        schema:
          type: string
      - name: cha
        in: query
        schema:
          type: string
      - name: loc
        in: query
        description: Location code; `--` denotes a blank location code.
        schema:
          type: string
      - name: start
        in: query
        schema:
          type: string
      - name: end
        in: query
        schema:
          type: string
      responses:
        '200':
          description: miniSEED waveform data.
          content:
            application/vnd.fdsn.mseed:
              schema:
                type: string
                format: binary
        '204':
          description: No waveform data available for the requested window. Verified live.
        '400':
          description: Malformed request.
          content:
            text/plain:
              schema:
                type: string
x-operator: institution
x-operator-rationale: service.scedc.caltech.edu is under the institution's own registrable domain and resolves to Caltech-operated hosts (134.4.54.0/24, Caltech address space). SCEDC is a Caltech Seismological Laboratory facility. FDSN is an open community standard the institution implements, not a vendor product it rents.
x-provenance:
  generated: '2026-08-19'
  method: derived
  derived-from: live unauthenticated HTTP probes, 2026-08-19
  source:
  - https://service.scedc.caltech.edu/fdsnws/station/1/version
  - https://service.scedc.caltech.edu/fdsnws/event/1/version
  - https://service.scedc.caltech.edu/fdsnws/dataselect/1/version
  - https://service.scedc.caltech.edu/fdsnws/dataselect/1/application.wadl
  - https://service.scedc.caltech.edu/fdsnws/station/1/query?net=CI&sta=PAS&level=station&format=text
  - https://service.scedc.caltech.edu/fdsnws/event/1/query?starttime=2026-08-01&endtime=2026-08-05&minmagnitude=3&format=text
  note: SCEDC publishes no OpenAPI. This description is API Evangelist's observation of the live services and must not be credited to Caltech as a published specification. The upstream normative contract is the FDSN web service specification.
x-standards:
- name: FDSN Web Services
  version: '1.1'
  url: https://www.fdsn.org/webservices/