CSMAP: Cross Section Selector and Tomogram Generator

Abstract

Seismic tomograms are the images of Earth's internal characteristics that help us understand geophysical phenomena. As a website at http://csmap.jamstec.go.jp, CSMAP provides an easy way to select and view Earth's seismic tomograms through a working web browser, acting as a graphical user interface to the underlying tomogram engine. The tomogram engine computes Earth's cross section tomograms with a depth range from Earth's surface to Core-Mantle Boundary (CMB) based on the seismic velocity perturbation model selected by the user from the three predefined models available in the website. Given a tomographic model and a cross section profile specified by two geocoordinates, CSMAP tells the engine to generate a tomogram. It sends the result back to the user in an HTML page, or as a PDF or Postscript file when the engine finishes computation.Written mostly in Java, CSMAP is run by Apache Tomcat on a Linux server. It works with all major web browsers including Google Chrome, Firefox, and Microsoft Internet Explorer. The user interface was designed to be simple and intuitive, yet it provides necessary help texts in tooltips and introduction pages in more details. With its small footprint on the server, CSMAP is easy to install and maintain. Since its launch on a JAMSTEC's public server in June 2015, the site has been running constantly and reliably without any major problems.In this report, we introduce CSMAP by presenting its background, system structure, and webpage layouts and usage. The usage statistics of the site for the initial 3 months are also presented.