The Argos seismic data message system

A reliable, inexpensive method for sending limited daily seismic data messages from remote observatories to the National Earthquake Information Center has been developed for use with the Argos satellite system. Data messages are compressed on a microcomputer and passed automatically to a simple transmitter. About 4 hr later, the data are available at the National Earthquake Information Center, where they are decompressed and reformatted into standard telegrams for use in quick epicenter determinations. Epicenter data are available daily to the international scientific community.