AROL compatibility

One of the objectives of obsinfo is to be compatible with the AROL instrumentation database. AROL is a yaml-based instrumentation database which can be explored through the Yasmine application. Its syntax is heavily based on version v0.106 of obsinfo. Efforts are underway to make the syntax of the current version of obsinfo and of AROL be as close as possible. However, since the philosophy is somewhat different, some discrepancies will be inevitable. AROL builds a configuration out of user choices made with the Yasmine tool. obsinfo lists all available configurations and lets the user choose using the configuration fields (sensor_configuration, preamplifier_configuration, datalogger_configuration) in a station or network information file.

The current effort is to make AROL yaml files readable by obsinfo. However, there are some outstanding issues:

  1. AROL uses units instead of transfer_function_type in Pole/Zero filters. Their value is directly translatable, via a table, to the transfer_function_type enumeration used by StationXML (see table below). Proposed solution: let AROL change names. If not possible, read the AROL file and change within the obsinfo application.

AROL unit

obsinfo/StationXML equivalent

“rad/s”

“LAPLACE (RADIANS/SECOND)”

“hz”

“LAPLACE (HERTZ)”

“z-transform”

“DIGITAL (Z-TRANSFORM)”

  1. AROL specifies both input_sample_rate and output_sample_rate for all stages. obsinfo only specifies the input sample rate for the first stage in the whole instrument. It calculates all the other values out of decimation factors. This gives more flexibility to the definition of each individual stage in the stages field of an information file. Proposed solution: read the AROL file and ignore these fields within the obsinfo application.

  2. AROL specifies response stages thus:

response:
  decimation_info:
    correction: true
  stages:

obsinfo simply specifies stages and the correction attribute is specified at the datalogger level, as it is the only place where it makes sense for the global instrument. Also, correction is specified as either boolean in AROL or as a real number. In obsinfo a value of None is equivalent to AROL False and a numeric value is equivalent to AROL True. Proposed solution: make obsinfo read the AROL file and interpret this attribute. If found in a response other than the datalogger, give a warning and ignore.