This post comes to us from Andy Lau, Applied Mathematician and Programmer:

My job is to develop computer programs for processing the acoustics data. Programs range from 1 time use only to repeatedly used programs. One of the long-running programs is the SEAS. It stands for Seismic Environmental Acoustic Software. It has been used since 1994 and it will be turning 20 years old on June 24th this year!

Seldom has a computer program been used for that long a period of time. The reason for its longevity is the interactive nature of the SEAS program. It allows users to see the data continuously in either a time-series and/or spectrum format; see Figure 1.

Also, the SEAS has 2 important options: it allows users to locate the seismic or biologic event origins and search for the event arrivals, which is a reverse process of triangulation; see Figure 2.

Because of these features, users can examine data quickly (as soon as the data has been downloaded from the hydrophones). The SEAS program has other tools that allow users to study the data in detail, making it helpful for a variety of different applications; see Figure 3.

Over the years, the SEAS program has been updated many times to meet the needs of users. Many visiting researchers have found the SEAS program so helpful, that they have requested the program to take with them. Currently, the SEAS program has been used by others outside of our group in the USA, France, South Korea and England.

I am happy to see the SEAS program has been beneficial and relevant for so many users for all these years. Now I need to keep up the work required to maintain and improve the SEAS program so that it can continue to serve. For how long? Well, only time will tell…