SunPy - Python for Solar Physics

Abstract

This paper presents SunPy (version 0.5), a community-developed Python package for solar physics. Python, a free, cross-platform, general-purpose, high-level programming language, has seen widespread adoption among the scientific community, resulting in the availability of a large number of software packages, from numerical computation (NumPy, SciPy) and machine learning (scikit-learn) to visualisation and plotting (matplotlib). SunPy is a data-analysis environment specialising in providing the software necessary to analyse solar and heliospheric data in Python. SunPy is open-source software (BSD licence) and has an open and transparent development workflow that anyone can contribute to. SunPy provides access to solar data through integration with the Virtual Solar Observatory (VSO), the Heliophysics Event Knowledgebase (HEK), and the HELiophysics Integrated Observatory (HELIO) webservices. It currently supports image data from major solar missions (e.g., SDO, SOHO, STEREO, and IRIS), time-series data from missions such as GOES, SDO/EVE, and PROBA2/LYRA, and radio spectra from e-Callisto and STEREO/SWAVES. We describe SunPy's functionality, provide examples of solar data analysis in SunPy, and show how Python-based solar data-analysis can leverage the many existing tools already available in Python. We discuss the future goals of the project and encourage interested users to become involved in the planning and development of SunPy.

References in corpus (3)

• scikit-image: Image processing in Python
• The Thermal Properties of Solar Flares Over Three Solar Cycles Using GOES X-ray Observations
• The LYRA Instrument Onboard PROBA2: Description and In-Flight Performance

Cited by in corpus (72)

• Array Programming with NumPy
• JHelioviewer - Time-dependent 3D visualisation of solar and heliospheric data
• Magnetic connectivity of the ecliptic plane within 0.5 AU : PFSS modeling of the first PSP encounter
• Predicting Solar Flares Using a Long Short-Term Memory Network
• Predicting Coronal Mass Ejections Using Machine Learning Methods
• CME-CME Interactions as Sources of CME Geo-effectiveness: The Formation of the Complex Ejecta and Intense Geomagnetic Storm in Early September 2017
• Flare Prediction Using Photospheric and Coronal Image Data
• A large-scale search for evidence of quasi-periodic pulsations in solar flares
• Determining the Intrinsic CME Flux Rope Type Using Remote-sensing Solar Disk Observations
• Forward modeling of coronal mass ejection flux ropes in the inner heliosphere with 3DCORE
• Persistent Quasi-Periodic Pulsations During a Large X-Class Solar Flare
• Coronal Magnetic Structure of Earthbound CMEs and In situ Comparison
• On-disc Observations of Flux Rope Formation Prior to its Eruption
• Quasi-Periodic Pulsations during the Impulsive and Decay phases of an X-class Flare
• Using Machine Learning Methods to Forecast If Solar Flares Will Be Associated with CMEs and SEPs
• Evidence for a New Component of High-Energy Solar Gamma-Ray Production
• Ensemble Prediction of a Halo Coronal Mass Ejection Using Heliospheric Imagers
• Pulsations in the Earth's Lower Ionosphere Synchronized with Solar Flare Emission
• The PDFI_SS Electric Field Inversion Software
• The Appearance of Spicules in High Resolution Observations of Ca II H and H-alpha
• Measurement of the Open Magnetic Flux in the Inner Heliosphere down to 0.13AU
• Simulating the Coronal Evolution of AR 11437 using SDO/HMI Magnetograms
• Predicting Coronal Mass Ejections Using SDO/HMI Vector Magnetic Data Products and Recurrent Neural Networks
• Active Longitude and Solar Flare Occurrences
• Thermodynamical Evolution of Supra-Arcade Downflows
• Snakes on a Spaceship - An Overview of Python in Heliophysics
• Optimization of Photospheric Electric Field Estimates for Accurate Retrieval of Total Magnetic Energy Injection
• The role of flux cancellation in eruptions from bipolar active regions
• Solar Flares Complex Networks
• Constraining Global Coronal Models with Multiple Independent Observables
• Radio Spectroscopic Imaging of a Solar Flare Termination Shock: Split-Band Feature as Evidence for Shock Compression
• Effects of flare definitions on the statistics of derived flare distributions
• Understanding Heating in Active Region Cores through Machine Learning I. Numerical Modeling and Predicted Observables
• Multipoint study of successive coronal mass ejections driving moderate disturbances at 1 AU
• The Stellar Variability Noise Floor for Transiting Exoplanet Photometry with PLATO
• A new catalogue of solar flare events from soft x-ray GOES signal in the period 1986-2020
• Magnetic Flux Rope Identification and Characterization from Observationally-Driven Solar Coronal Models
• In-flight photometry extraction of PLATO targets: Optimal apertures for detecting extrasolar planets
• Diagnostic potential of the Ca II 8542A line for solar filaments
• Possible Detection of Subsecond-period Propagating Magnetohydrodynamics Waves in Post-reconnection Magnetic Loops during a Two-ribbon Solar Flare
• NuSTAR Observation of a Minuscule Microflare in a Solar Active Region
• Heating of the solar chromosphere through current dissipation
• Complex Network for Solar Active Regions
• Discovery of correlated evolution in solar noise storm source parameters: Insights on magnetic field dynamics during a microflare
• ALMA observations of transient heating in a solar active region
• Coronal Magnetic Field Measurements along a Partially Erupting Filament in a Solar Flare
• Simulating the Coronal Evolution of Bipolar Active Regions to Investigate the Formation of Flux Ropes
• Probing the effect of cadence on the estimates of photospheric energy and helicity injections in eruptive active region NOAA AR 11158
• Predicting Solar Energetic Particles Using SDO/HMI Vector Magnetic Data Products and a Bidirectional LSTM Network
• Quantifying the Magnetic Structure of a Coronal Shock Producing a Type II Radio Burst
• Quasi-biennial oscillations in the cross-correlation of properties of macrospicules
• Statistical study of spatio-temporal distribution of precursor solar flares associated with major flares
• Evolution of the Magnetic Field Distribution of Active Regions
• The First Survey of Quiet Sun Features Observed in Hard X-Rays With NuSTAR
• A New Analysis Procedure for Detecting Periodicities within Complex Solar Coronal Arcades
• Estimating uncertainties in the back-mapping of the fast solar wind
• The reported durations of GOES Soft X-Ray flares in different solar cycles
• Small-scale motions in solar filaments as the precursors of eruptions
• Photospheric plasma and magnetic field dynamics during the formation of solar AR 11190
• Understanding the plasma and magnetic field evolution of a filament using observations and Nonlinear force-free field modelling
• AWARE: An algorithm for the automated characterization of EUV waves in the solar atmosphere
• A Global Survey of EUV Corona Power Spectra
• Hunt for Starspots in HARPS Spectra of G and K Stars
• Interferometric imaging, and beam-formed study of a moving Type IV Radio burst with LOFAR
• Exploring magnetic field properties at the boundary of solar pores: A comparative study based on SDO-HMI observations
• Global Oscillation Pattern in Succeeding Solar Flares
• Chirality and magnetic configuration associated with two-ribbon solar flares: AR 10930 versus AR 11158
• Characterising Solar Magnetic Reconnection in Confined and Eruptive Flares
• Stability and wave dynamics in polytropic Eddington-inspired Born-Infeld gravitating solar plasmas
• First Solar Radio Burst Observations by the Mexican Array Radio Telescope (MEXART) at 140 MHz
• Small-scale Turbulent Motion of the Plasma in a Solar Filament as the Precursor of Eruption
• Magnetic Structure and Propagation of Two Interacting CMEs from the Sun to Saturn