pySPEDAS

pySPEDAS is an implementation of the SPEDAS framework in python.

The Space Physics Environment Data Analysis Software (SPEDAS) framework is written in IDL and contains data loading, data analysis and data plotting tools for various scientific NASA missions.

This package is designed to work with the libraries cdflib and pytplot.

How It Works

CDF files are downloaded from the internet to the local machine. The data from these files is loaded into pytplot objects and can be plotted.

Getting Started

These instructions will get you a copy of the project up and running on your local machine for development and testing purposes.

Install Python

Python 3.5+ is required.

We recommend Anaconda which comes with a suite of packages useful for science.

Install pySPEDAS

To install pySPEDAS, open a command line and type the command:

pip install pyspedas

Upgrade pySPEDAS

If you have already installed pySPEDAS, you can upgrade to the latest version using:

pip install --upgrade pyspedas

Running pySPEDAS

Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions during Substorms (THEMIS) data

After installation, please change the file pyspedas/prefs.ini and set data_dir=C:\Datapy\themis to a writable directory of your choice. This is the local directory where the CDF files will be saved.

To download CDF files for the THEMIS mission, use:

import pyspedas

pyspedas.load_data(mission, dates, probes, instruments, level, downloadonly)

For example:

d = pyspedas.load_data('themis', '2015-12-31', ['tha'], 'state', 'l1', False)

Crib sheets

Folder examples contains some crib sheets to get you started.

Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) data

To set your local data directory for MMS, change the local_data_dir option in pyspedas/mms/mms_config.py

To load 1 day of L2 srvy-mode FGM data:

from pyspedas import mms_load_fgm

mms_load_fgm(trange=['2015-10-16', '2015-10-17'], data_rate='srvy')

To load 1 minute of L2 brst-mode FPI electron moments data for probes 3 and 4:

from pyspedas import mms_load_fpi

mms_load_fpi(probe=[3, 4], trange=['2015-10-16/13:06', '2015-10-16/13:07'], data_rate='brst', datatype='des-moms')

Additional Information

For pytplot, see: https://github.com/MAVENSDC/PyTplot

For cdflib, see: https://github.com/MAVENSDC/cdflib

For SPEDAS, see http://spedas.org/blog/

For information on the THEMIS mission, see http://themis.ssl.berkeley.edu/

(This is the permanent location of pyspedas. Previous location for the initial version of pyspedas was: https://github.com/nickssl/pyspedas)