A new absolute arrival time data set for Europe

The main aim of this study is to create a data set of accurate absolute arrival times for stations in Europe which do not report to the International Seismological Centre (ISC). Waveforms were obtained from data centres and temporary experiments and a semi-automatic picking method was applied to determine absolute arrival times for P and S phases. 85 000 arrival times were picked whose distribution of residuals shows generally low standard deviations on the order of 0.5–0.7 s. Furthermore, mean teleseismic station residuals reflect the properties of the underlying crust and uppermost mantle. Comparison to ISC data for matching event-station-phase combinations also confirms the good quality of the new absolute arrival time picks. Most importantly, this data set complements the ISC data as it fills regional data coverage gaps in Europe.