About COSMOS

The Consortium of Organizations for Strong-Motion Observation Systems (COSMOS) is a 501c3 membership organization.

MISSION – COSMOS promotes use of instrumentation and simulations for ground-motion, geotechnical and structural response analysis to foster resilient communities empowered by international guidelines, state-of-the-art processes, and global collaboration.

VISION – COSMOS strives to be a leader in the global earthquake community by elevating the standard of practice for seismic hazard assessment and risk reduction.

The specific objectives of COSMOS are:

(a) Develop policies and foster innovative ideas for the universal improvement in strong-motion measurements and their applications;

(b) Encourage international collaboration and exchange of knowledge;

(c) Promote the advancement of ground and infrastructure strong-motion measurement within densely urbanized areas and other locations of special significance to society likely to be struck by future earthquakes;

(d) Encourage and assist the rapid, convenient, and effective analysis and distribution of strong-motion data according to the COSMOS and other standards;

(e) Strengthen, expand, and support strong-motion programs, including topics related to station and site response, recording systems, instrumentation of the built environment, analysis and interpretation software, and analysis methods and procedures;

(f) Work to solve mutual problems with instrumentation, data quality, data processing, data dissemination, and data utilization;

(g) Advance systematic user influence on data acquisition and data dissemination processes;

(h) Advance and facilitate the use of strong-motion data to achieve improved earthquake resistance of the built environment through research and engineering practice; and

(i) Promote and support research on the areas of interest to COSMOS and contribute to the continuing education of the practicing community.