Overview of the Italian strong motion database ITACA 1.0

The Italian Strong Motion Database, ITACA, was developed within projects S6 and S4, funded in the framework of the agreements between the Italian Department of Civil Protection (Dipartimento della Protezione Civile, DPC) and the Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV), starting from 2005. The alpha version of the database was released in 2007 and subsequently upgraded to version 1.0 after: (i) including the most recent strong motion data (from 2005 to 2007) recorded in Italy, in addition to the 2008 Parma earthquake, M 5.4, and the M ≥ 4.0, 2009 Abruzzo seismic events; (ii) processing the raw strong motion data using an updated procedure; (iii) increasing the number of stations with a measured shear wave velocity profile; (iv) improving the utilities to retrieve time series and ground motion parameters; (v) implementing a tool for selecting time series in agreement with design-response spectra; (vi) compiling detailed station reports containing miscellaneous information such as photo, maps and site parameters; (vii) developing procedures for the automatic generation of station reports and for the updating of the header files. After such improvements, ITACA 1.0 was published at the web site http://itaca.mi.ingv.it, in 2010. It presently contains 3,955 three-component waveforms, comprising the most complete catalogue of the Italian accelerometric records in the period 1972–2007 (3,562 records) and the strongest events in the period 2008–2009. Records were mainly acquired by DPC through its Accelerometric National Network (RAN) and, in few cases, by local networks and temporary stations or networks. This paper introduces the published version of the Italian Strong Motion database (ITACA version 1.0) together with main improvements and new functionalities.