GEOSCOPE: 40 years of global broadband seismic data

The GEOSCOPE observatory provides more than 4 decades of high-quality continuous broadband data to the scientific community. Started in 1982 with a few stations, the network has grown over the years thanks to numerous international partnerships. The 33 operational GEOSCOPE stations are now installed in 18 countries, across all continents and on islands throughout the oceans, filling important gaps in the global Earth coverage (in Africa, Antarctica, Indian Ocean, Pacific Ocean islands and more). Most of the first installed stations are still running today allowing for long term observations and new sites are being prospected for future installations.

Over the years GEOSCOPE contributed to define today's global seismology standards through the FDSN (data format, data quality level, instrumentation requirements), being the french contribution to the international effort (with GSN, GEOFON and others) towards global seismic observations. The stations are equipped with the best quality seismometers (from the very first STS1 in the early 80's to the last STS-6A and Trilium T360 nowadays) and digitizers (Q330HR and Centaur), in order to record with a high fidelity the ground motions generated by all types of seismic sources. Furthermore, most of the stations are also equipped with accelerometers, pressure and temperature sensors allowing for a wider range of observable events such as the recent Hunga-Tonga eruption. All the data are sent in real-time to IPGP data center and are automatically transmitted to other data centers (IRIS-DMC and RESIF) and tsunami warning centers.

In 2022, a workshop has been organized to celebrate the 40th anniversary of GEOSCOPE and illustrate the main scientific achievements made possible by all the global networks. After a brief look at the history of the network and a feedback on the workshop, the recent evolutions of the observatory (new stations in Africa, new generation 360s sensors upgrades, IT infrastructure) and the perspectives (future stations) will be presented.