Main Concept: |
hide the complexity of each mission specific dataset behind a common programming interface; then reusable, generic tools can be built for interpreting data from any mission whose data is available through the interface |
Javadoc style on-line documentation for the API
There are three kinds of data needed for rudimentary energetic particle data analysis:
For the three differents types of data, we have defined essential parameters for describing the data. Each of these parameters can be thought of as a vector of values. Every data type has a time vector, which gives the time stamp for the corresponding points in the other vectors.
| EPD | |
|---|---|
| time | time stamp of each data point |
| flux | intensity values for the differential particle flux |
| flux uncertainty | statistical uncertainty in the flux measurement |
| accumulation time | the length of time over which the flux was accumulated |
| theta | the central theta angle (declination or lattitude - radians above or below the ecliptic) for the measurement, in a mission specific coordinate system, usually GSE |
| phi | central phi angle (right ascension or longitude in radians) |
| delta theta | the height of the solid angle of the measurement in the theta direction |
| delta phi | the width of the solid angle of the measurement in the phi direction |
| delta rotation | the angle at which the approximated solid angle rectangle is tilted with respect to the ecliptic |
Comments on the EPD parameters:
| MAG | |
|---|---|
| t | time stamp of each data point |
| Bx | x component of the magnetic field |
| By | y component of the magnetic field |
| Bz | z component of the magnetic field |
| delta Bx | statistical uncertainty in Bx |
| delta By | statistical uncertainty in By |
| delta Bz | statistical uncertainty in Bz |
Comments on the MAG parameters:
| ACS | |
|---|---|
| t | time time stamp of each data point |
| X | x component of spacecraft position |
| Y | y component of spacecraft position |
| Z | z component of spacecraft position |
Comments on the ACS parameters:
Based on the crucial parameters for each type of data, we have defined a programming interface for accessing those parameters.
Click here to see the online documentation (javadoc format) for the programming interface.
Notice that each of the three data types shares common characteristics (mission name, PI name, institution, data generation data, etc., through a base class interface called "Instrument")
The EPDSupport class provides additional convenience functionality for accessing EPD information without cluttering up the basic API.