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Mission

The mission of the California Integrated Seismic Network (CISN) is to operate a reliable, modern, statewide system for earthquake monitoring, research, archiving, and distribution of information for the benefit of public safety, emergency response, and loss mitigation. Further, the CISN seeks to mitigate the impact of future earthquakes by collecting, processing, and disseminating critical earthquake information in a timely way.

Who We Are

Six organizations collaborate in the CISN in order to monitor earthquakes and collect data to support improvements to earthquake resilience. Core members of the CISN are: California Geological Survey, Caltech Seismological Laboratory, UC Berkeley Seismological Laboratory, USGS Menlo Park, USGS Pasadena, and the California Governor's Office of Emergency Services.

Other organizations also contribute data that enhance the capabilities of the CISN. Contributing members of the CISN include: University of California, Santa Barbara,University of California, San Diego, University of Nevada, Reno, University of Washington, University of Oregon, California Department of Water Resources, Lawrence Livermore National Lab, and Pacific Gas and Electric.

Governance

The CISN began in November 2000, when the six core institutions signed a Memorandum Of Agreement describing organizational goals and products, management, and the responsibilities of the member organizations. The Steering Committee oversees CISN projects while the external Advisory Committee, representing the interests of structural engineers, seismologists, emergency managers, industry, government, and utilities, provides review. Day to day management is done by the Program Management Group. A Standards Committee meets regularly to discuss, resolve and coordinate technical design and implementation questions. Finally, a Strong Motion Working Group focuses on topics related to strong-motion data.

Organization

The CISN has three management centers with different responsibilities:

The Northern and Southern California Earthquake Management Centers operate as twin earthquake processing centers. The Engineering Earthquake Management Center has the lead responsibility for producing engineering data products.

Partnerships

The Federal Government, through the USGS, provides funds for seismic monitoring in California through both internal and external programs. These funds support earthquake monitoring activities in southern and northern California. The USGS office in Menlo Park works with UCB to maintain a comprehensive program in northern California. The USGS office in Pasadena is located on the Caltech campus and the USGS shares responsibilities with Caltech in operating the seismic network in southern California. The USGS external program also provides funds to Caltech and UCB for operations and to produce the earthquake catalogs. The USGS and NSF fund the Southern California Earthquake Center (SCEC), which in turn provides funding for the Southern California Earthquake Data Center (SCEDC). The USGS through the Advanced National Seismic System (ANSS) supports improvements in seismic instrumentation throughout the state.

The State of California also supports CISN activities. The California Strong Motion Instrumentation Program (CSMIP), funded by the State at CGS, contributes data both to realtime monitoring and to support engineering activities. In addition, the State, provides core support for UC Berkeley's Seismological Laboratory, including partial support for the operation of the Berkeley Digital Seismic Network. At its inception, the State of California's Office of Emergency Services provided significant funds to increase the CISN's capabilities, with annual funding contributing to operation and maintenance of the networks.