The Many Ways to Access SDO Data
Citizen Scientist
Look at jpeg images that are posted soon after being received by the science teams. They are provided at a rate of one image per channel every 15 minutes, with that rate changing during spacecraft maneuvers or when a data outage occurs.
- LMSAL Sun Today
- View and download the latest AIA and HMI images. Look back in time in steps of a day for the last 60 days.
- http://www.lmsal.com/suntoday
- Helioviewer
- A web-based application that can be used to examine time series of solar images. Can overlay images from SOHO & SDO and stream large data sets interactively in real-time. Allows zoom, pan, basic image processing and overlay of events from catalogs.
- http://helioviewer.org/
Space Weather / Near Real Time
Provide access to the Near Real Time (NRT) data in FITS files rather than the jpeg images described in the "Citizen Scientist" section.
- HMI "most recent" images
- A directory of NRT jpeg image files and animations for the continuum intensity, line-of-sight magnetograms, and Dopplergrams. These files can be retrieved with ftp or wget commands, allowing the retrieval to be automated.
- http://jsoc.stanford.edu/data/hmi/
- LMSAL Cutout Service
- Retrieve cutouts of AIA and HMI data, rather than full disk images. This tool works with the browse (Near Real Time) data. This allows for a rapid viewing of the solar event, but the final spacecraft pointing information is not available for several days after an observation is made. The tracked-patch service at the JSOC should be used when extremely accurate alignment is required.
- Web-based form
- IDL Interface
- Integrated Space Weather Analysis System (iSWA)
- Web application for visualizing space weather data from multiple missions, including all SDO instruments.
- http://iswa.ccmc.gsfc.nasa.gov/
Science Data
The primary archive for HMI and AIA data; supports complex search parameters for use in helioseismology.
- SolarSoft IDL Interface
- SolarSoft is a set of software libraries, data bases, and system utilities for analyzing data used in solar physics.
- http://www.lmsal.com/solarsoft/
- NetDRMS
- Describes a system used to access the HMI/AIA archive for workflow processing; requires a dedicated Linux server and a sizeable disk array.
- http://vso.stanford.edu/netdrms/
- jHelioviewer (Java Application)
- A downloadable java application that allows basic image processing and provides a plugin architecture for third-party features. The plugin requires the jHelioviewer API, which is described at http://jhelioviewer.org/api/.
- http://jhelioviewer.org/
Other Useful places
- Virtual Solar Observatory (VSO)
- Search for SDO and other solar physics data based on time, spectral range, physical observable and other parameters.
- Web-based Search
- IDL Interface
- API Documentation
- Heliophysics Event Knowledgebase (HEK)
- Search catalogs of events and features in a web-based search engine.
- Web-based Search
- IDL Interface
See Also
- Marc DeRosa & Greg Slater's Guide to SDO Data Analysis:
- How to find SDO data
- Information about data visualization tools
- Frequently Asked Questions
- List of FITS readers that support Rice compressed images
- http://www.lmsal.com/sdouserguide.html