spedasslide − 1gem dec 8,, 2013 spedas: a framework for supporting multi- mission data analysis...

SPEDAS Slide − 1 GEM Dec 8,, 2013

SPEDAS: A framework for supporting multi-mission data analysis and visualization

SPEDAS Slide − 2 GEM Dec 8, 2013

THEMIS Data Analysis SoftwareOrganization ContributorsUC Berkeley D Larson, H Frey, J Bonnell, J McFadden, A Keiling

J McTiernan, B Sadeghi, N Hatzigeorgiu, J LewisUCLA V Angelopoulos, P Cruce, C Russell, H Leinweber,

A Flores, K Ramer, B Kerr, M Feuerstein, L Philpott, E Grimes

SP Systems K BromundAPLH KorthNASA/GSFC V KondratovichMPE E Georgescu TUBS U AusterCETP P Robert, O LeContel Calgary B Jackel, E Donovan

Acknowledgements


SPEDAS concept

• What is SPEDAS?- Space Physics Environment Data Analysis System- Future development plan for TDAS software, originally developed

for the THEMIS mission- Developer hooks to access core capabilities (data loading,

plotting, analysis, GUI) in a way that eases and supports development of modules for other missions.

- Ultimate goal: establish SPEDAS as the platform of choice for the space physics community, similar to what Solarsoft has done for the solar community

• IDL based (library of routines –but no main program!).• Code is free and available to everyone• Platform independent. Works on:

- Solaris, Linux, Windows, Vista, Mac OS X• Missions currently supported or planned to support

• THEMIS/ARTEMIS, Wind, ACE, ERG, IUGONET, OMNI, GOES magnetometer, Van Allen probes (EFW, RBSPICE)


SPEDAS concept

• SPEDAS design objectives• Provide a stable, thoroughly tested, easy-to-use, easily-

extensible framework to support other missions• Developers for other missions relieved of the burden of

reinventing the wheel and duplicating effort that has already gone into the existing tools

• More freedom to concentrate on mission-specific analysis tools, rather than the nuts and bolts of developing or testing GUI components, file transfer routines, and other framework-level components.

• Portability • Can be used on any hardware or OS platform supported by

IDL• Simplicity

• Narrow, well-defined interface between framework code and mission-specific code


SPEDAS concept

• What needs to be done to make SPEDAS happen?• Disentangle project-specific code from framework-level

code• Data loading support functions (file_retrieve, cdf2tplot)• Command-line plotting functions (tplot and related tools)• GUI support (API for new “Load Data” tabs, loading/saving

GUI documents and replaying saved loading/processing/plotting history)

• Create an API (“developer hooks”) that will form the interface between SPEDAS and project-specific code

• Document the SPEDAS API • Provide sample code that can be used as development

templates for other missions.• Provide for two-way communication between the SPEDAS

developers and the community, so that community-driven bug fixes and enhancements can occur without devolving into a chaotic free-for-all.


SPEDAS concept

• What needs to be done to make SPEDAS happen?• Define a Quality Assurance process for both the SPEDAS

framework and mission-specific plugins• Decouple SPEDAS development and release cycle from

plugin development and release


SPEDAS concept

• What is the current status of SPEDAS development?• An API now exists for integrating plugin code with the GUI

“Load Data” panels• “Load Data” tabs no longer hardcoded, can be created at

runtime from a simple configuration file listing the available plugins

• No IDL code changes required to support a new Load Data tab

• A reference implementation for a simple load routine and Load Data tab has been created and can serve as a template for other missions.

• Only about 2 hours of work to implement a new Load Data tab – minimal knowledge of TDAS GUI internals required.

• Plugin developers only need to worry about GUI controls on their own load panel, framework takes care of everything else (maintaining “loaded data” tree, switching between tabs, etc)


• New API routine in TDAS 8.0: Standard routine for presenting mission-specific “terms of use” and acknowledgments• response=spedas_terms_of_use(mission_name,agreement_text=agreeme

nt_text)• Allows text to be presented once per user and never again, or once per

IDL session, or every time the load routine is called. Return value indicates whether user accepted the terms of use.

• Calendar widget updated to support plugin-defined valid date ranges• Allows IUGONET “load data” panel to accept dates in 1800s, while

THEMIS panel only accepts dates in 2007 and later.

• SPEDAS now includes routines to read/write FITS files• SPEDAS now includes more support for loading netCDF files,

via the new routine netcdf2tplot.


• The Configuration Settings panel has been reworked to support plugin-specific tabs, similar to the tabbed interface to the Load Data panel, for loading, editing, and saving plugin settings (such as server URLs, local data directories, verbosity levels) that should persist between IDL sessions.

• Some framework-level configuration settings will be moved out of the THEMIS configuration into a new SPEDAS configuration tab.


• As part of the Spring 2014 release, we will also be rolling out a SPEDAS web site. Features will include a wiki, containing extensive SPEDAS, THEMIS, and other plugin documention; an issue-tracking system (based on Apache Bloodhound and Trac), and a Wordpress blog for announcements and other topics of interest.

• We are exploring some options for a central version control repository for plugin code.


• To do (this release): Reorganize release directory structure, rename all GUI routines from thm_ prefixes to spd_ prefixes. (This will require changes to plugin code. We have an automated tool that can help rename the calls.)

• To do: Add support for plugin-specific help requests or trouble reports.

• To do: Add API routines to give plugin code access to GUI menus and the Data Processing panel. It is helpful to expose as much functionality as possible from the GUI, since there is no support for the command line in the VM environment.

• To do: Figure out how to handle higher dimensional data (e.g, movies, data cubes, other structures beyond the currently supported line plots & spectrograms.)

spedasslide − 1gem dec 8,, 2013 spedas: a framework for supporting multi- mission data analysis...

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