Tools

Tools included with the TauP package:

time	calculates travel times.
pierce	calculates pierce points at model discontinuities and specified depths.
path	calculates ray paths, depth versus epicentral distance.
find	calculates all possible phases in a model with number of interactions.
distaz	distance, azimuth and back azimuth between points.
wavefront	calculates wavefronts in steps of time, depth versus epicentral distance.
curve	calculates travel time curves, time versus epicentral distance.
phase	textual description of the path the phase takes through the model.
table	outputs travel times for a range of depths and distances in an ASCII file
setms3	puts theoretical arrival times into extra headers.
setsac	puts theoretical arrival times into sac header variables.
velmerge	merges part of one velocity model into another.
velplot	output velocity model as a gmt script.
discon	list discontinuities in a velocity model.
create	creates a .taup model from a velocity model.
spikes	create spike seismogram.
refltrans	plot reflection and transmission coefficients for a discontinuity.
web	http access to the tools
version	print the version.
help	display help information about the specified command.

Usage

Each tool is a subcommand of the overall taup Java application which is a wrapper to make execution easier, and installed with a simple sh script for Unix and a .bat files for windows. In general the tools are run like

taup time -p P --deg 35

where the pattern is taup <tool> <arg> <arg> <arg>....

Help and Version

Each tool has a --help flag that will print a usage summary, as well as a --version flag that will print the version. For help in general,

taup --help

gives the tools available while

taup <tool> --help

gives help for a particular tool.

Output Formats

Most tools support several output formats. Some tools, like time, are textual, while other like path can also be graphical. In general, the most commonly useful output format is the default, usually --text for textual output and --svg for SVG graphical output. The output formats support by one or more tools are:

--text	Textual output, usually best for human reading
--html	HTML web page output, also for human reading
--json	JSON, usually best for parsing
--csv	CSV, comma separated values, sometimes good for parsing
--nd	named discontinuity, velocity model file format
--gmt	GMT plot style
--svg	SVG image
--ms3	Miniseed3 waveform file
--sac	SAC waveform file
--locsat	LOCSAT style traveltime table

Velocity Model

Almost all tools require an input velocity model. This can be specified via the --mod argument, and TauP will search for either an already created .taup model file, or a .nd named discontinuities model file or a .tvel ttimes style model file. The .taup file, being already interpolated, is usually faster, especially for repeated uses, but being able to read, interpolate and calculate a .nd or .tvel file is very useful.

Distances

Many of the tools require a way to specify the ray to be calculated, either via some parameter of the ray or of a distance. See the Distances section for more on the various arguments used to specify this.

Also see the Calculations section for important information on how distances are calculated internally.