Server and Data Models in das2py

Das2py is a support infrastructure module for web accessible data sets in use by the MARSIS radar team on Mars Express. In order to support different data server protocols and handle a variety of coordinate spaces, abstraction layers above both the client-server protocol and the resulting numeric arrays have been created. In the past we have found common meta-data requirements and client-server protocols to be overly prescriptive for the variety of coordinate dependencies within our data sets, thus making it difficult to adopt these standards into our daily work flows. In light of recent efforts by the Python in Heliophysics Community (PyHC) to promote collaboration among space physics python developers, we share the data source and data set abstractions defined within the das2 system that work well for our research. The simultaneous flexibility and simplicity in our approach should be appealing to researchers and we hope that it will influence whatever models are created by the community in the future.