The SunPy Ecosystem
Abstract
We discuss the development of SunPy and the ecosystem of related Python packages that provide specialized functionality to the heliophysics community. SunPy is a community-developed, free and open-source software package for solar physics. It aims to provide a comprehensive data-analysis environment that allows researchers within the field of solar physics to simply perform common tasks.
SunPy has released 9 beta versions (0.x) and work is now ongoing on SunPy 1.0 whose purpose will be to provide a stable API. SunPy 1.0 provides the ability to search and download data from multiple places including the VSO, JSOC and the HEK; offers TimeSeries and Map objects that enable the manipulation of time series and two-dimensional image data respectively; and enables transformations between solar and astronomical coordinate systems. SunPy 1.0 will support Python 3.6+ only, and the SunPy 0.9.x series will provide bugfix support to existing functionality for Python 2.7.x until the scheduled end of Python 2 support at the end of 2019. SunPy is supported by the development of affiliated packages that provide additional functionality built on top of the core library. For example, IRISPy is an SunPy-affiliated package designed for reading, manipulating and visualizing data taken with the Interface Region Imaging Spectrometer. The package ndcube is a SunPy-affiliated package designed for handling n-dimensional datacubes described by a World Coordinate System translation, permitting powerful manipulation of multi-dimensional data. The package DRMS provides access to MDI, HMI and AIA data at the SDO JSOC. Other packages in the SunPy ecosystem are fiasco, a Python interface to the CHIANTI atomic database, sunkit image, an open-source toolbox for solar physics image processing, and solarbextrapolation, a library for extrapolating 3D magnetic fields from line-of-sight magnetograms. We discuss how SunPy can provide a model for package interoperability in the context of an expanding heliophysical data-analysis environment.- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2018
- Bibcode:
- 2018AGUFMIN11B0628R
- Keywords:
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- 1904 Community standards;
- INFORMATICSDE: 1936 Interoperability;
- INFORMATICSDE: 1976 Software tools and services;
- INFORMATICSDE: 7599 General or miscellaneous;
- SOLAR PHYSICS;
- ASTROPHYSICS;
- AND ASTRONOMY