SPEDAS (Space Physics Environment Data Analysis System) is an open-source data analysis tool intended for

space physics Space physics, also known as space plasma physics, is the study of naturally occurring plasmas within Earth's upper atmosphere and the rest of the Solar System. It includes the topics of aeronomy, aurorae, planetary ionospheres and magnetospheres, ...

users. It was developed using

Interactive Data Language IDL, short for Interactive Data Language, is a programming language used for data analysis. It is popular in particular areas of science, such as astronomy, atmospheric physics and medical imaging. IDL shares a common Syntax (programming langua ...

(IDL). Since its creation, the tool has also been

ported In software engineering, porting is the process of adapting software for the purpose of achieving some form of execution in a computing environment that is different from the one that a given program (meant for such execution) was originally desig ...

Python Python may refer to: Snakes * Pythonidae, a family of nonvenomous snakes found in Africa, Asia, and Australia ** ''Python'' (genus), a genus of Pythonidae found in Africa and Asia * Python (mythology), a mythical serpent Computing * Python (prog ...

in the form of a program referred to as pySPEDAS.

Overview

SPEDAS is free software that can download and manipulate data from scientific space missions. It contains both a GUI (

graphical user interface A graphical user interface, or GUI, is a form of user interface that allows user (computing), users to human–computer interaction, interact with electronic devices through Graphics, graphical icon (computing), icons and visual indicators such ...

) and a command line mode for advanced users. It offers various tools for performing calculations and transformations of the data and for visualizing the results. Software modules can be developed for SPEDAS, extending its capabilities. It also includes a tool for downloading data from

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

servers usin
CDAWeb
SPEDAS evolved from software developed for the

THEMIS In Greek mythology and religion, Themis (; ) is the goddess and personification of justice, divine order, law, and custom. She is one of the twelve Titan children of Gaia and Uranus, and the second wife of Zeus. She is associated with oracles a ...

mission, which was called TDAS (THEMIS Data Analysis Software). In turn, TDAS used IDL code developed previously for earlier missions going back to the 1990s. SPEDAS was developed by scientists and programmers of the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

Space Sciences Laboratory The Space Sciences Laboratory (SSL) is an Organized Research Unit (ORU) of the University of California, Berkeley. Founded in 1959, the laboratory is located in the Berkeley Hills above the university campus. It has developed and continues to ...

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school the ...

'
IGPP
and other contributors.

Deployment

Three different types of SPEDAS deployment are available: * Source code. The full IDL code for SPEDAS is available as a zip file download. To use this, users must install and license IDL from Exelis. * Save file. IDL save files can run in a free but restricted version of IDL, called IDL Virtual Machine (VM). Users have to download IDL VM from Exelis, install it and register with Exelis before they can use the SPEDAS save file. * Executable file. This distribution contains executable files for Windows, Linux and Mac OS. In this case, users do not have to separately install and download anything else.

Plugins

One of the main goals of SPEDAS is to accommodate the needs of different NASA missions. Towards this goal, its architecture is modular. Users can develop plugins for loading data, for configuration and for specialized calculations or operations on the data. As of version 3.1, SPEDAS includes plugins for loading data from the following missions or data sets: *

* MMS *

GOES The Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES), operated by the United States' National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)'s National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service division, supports weather fo ...

WIND Wind is the natural movement of atmosphere of Earth, air or other gases relative to a planetary surface, planet's surface. Winds occur on a range of scales, from thunderstorm flows lasting tens of minutes, to local breezes generated by heatin ...

ACE An ace is a playing card, die or domino with a single pip. In the standard French deck, an ace has a single suit symbol (a heart, diamond, spade, or a club) located in the middle of the card, sometimes large and decorated, especially in the ...

* IUGONET *

ERG The erg is a unit of energy equal to 10−7joules (100Nano-, nJ). It is not an SI unit, instead originating from the centimetre–gram–second system of units (CGS). Its name is derived from (), a Greek language, Greek word meaning 'work' or ' ...

* OMNI * Geomagnetic/Solar indices Plugins for specialized calculations are: * Generation of GOES overview plots * Generation of THEMIS overview plots * THEMIS particle distribution slices

References

{{Reflist, 30em

External links

SPEDAS wiki page

SPEDAS blog page

* UC Berkeley, Space Sciences Lab Cross-platform free software Space science Space physics NASA