From Paper to Pixels: Lessons Learnt from Creating and Using the Nuclear Explosion Legacy Data Repository

Abstract The Nuclear Explosion Legacy Data (NELD) Repository was designed and built to store analog scanned and digitized data in a format consistent with the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO) database. It follows and extends the CSS/IMS formats for the time series data and station metadata. Presently, NELD repository includes 1,800 scanned seismic recordings and can be easily extended to larger collection and to a digital waveform repository to include the digitized scans. Its data cover over 300 nuclear explosions detonated in test sites around the world and recorded at over 59 European stations in Austria, Bulgaria, Republic of Moldova and Romania. The repository is supported by a database including information about the event, station, equipment, and analog recording. Valuable experience was gained on procedures for data selection and scanning, and for collecting, organizing, and storing the metadata information needed for successful usage of legacy data. Digitization software packages openly available were tested on some of the scans. All scanned data and metadata are stored in NELD repository designed by Leidos and are ready to be shared with the community. A prototype NELD web presentation was designed, that would provide the community with easy access to the repository data.