The statistics and lists of SPDF data and services acknowledged in professional journals has been updated for year 2023.
The PSP data have been extended to December 2023 (availability depending on data sets), covering Encounter 17 and some of Orbit 18. Please check the system, the PSP inventory plot and the annual inventory plots for details.
Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) magnetometer data and Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) radiation data for many years have been added to the system, services and archive.
Try out our new prototype browser-based 4D Orbit Viewer to display the SSC spacecraft orbits in an interactive 3-D animation tool.
The SPDF website has been completely revised to apply the US Web Design System (USWDS) to provide consistent usability, accessibility, editorial style, and a common look-and-feel across the US Government. We tried to preserve existing URLs where possible, and added an acronym/glossary list and a large list of heliophysics resources. Please contact us with any issues, additions, or suggestions.
The Parker Solar Probe (PSP) data have been extended to August 2023 (availability depending on data sets), covering Encounter 16 and some of Orbit 16. Please check CDAWeb for the data and PSP inventory plot and annual inventory plots for details.
The PSP data have been extended to June 2023 (availability depending on data sets), covering the rest of Orbit 15, including Encounter 15, and part of the inbound leg of Orbit 16. New Radio Frequency Spectrometer (RFS) Level 3 High Frequency Receiver (HFR) and Low Frequency Receiver (LFR) data sets from the FIELDS instrument suite are released. They include the calibration from units of power spectral density to units of flux, and also include useful data for interpreting the RFS spectra (position, attitude, temperature, bias current). The Energetic Particle Investigation (EPI)-Lo and EPI-Hi data from ISOIS instrument suite have new variables with quality flags, and EPI-Lo data have been updated with improved geometric factors. Please check CDAWeb for the data and PSP inventory plot and annual inventory plots for details.
Thirty two dosimeter measurement data sets from the Responsive Environmental Assessment Commercially Hosted (REACH) constellation are now available in the archive and CDAWeb system.
The Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) data are archived at SPDF at https://spdf.gsfc.nasa.gov/pub/data/ibex/. In addition, the datasets in Releases 2-17 have been converted into the CDF scientific file format with full ISTP metadata for easier analysis and available at https://spdf.gsfc.nasa.gov/pub/data/ibex/cdf/. The data are also available via various SPDF web services, including CDAWeb.
The PSP data have been extended to February 2023, covering Orbit 14, Encounter 14, and part of the inbound leg of Orbit 15. In addition, a new Fields Level 3 dust data set was added. Please check CDAWeb for the data and PSP inventory plot and annual inventory plots for details.
A new CDF version 3.9.0 distribution is now available. See the CDF home page for links to the software/documentation and the 3.9.0 Release Notes.
The PSP data have been extended up to November 2022, covering the rest of Orbit 13 and a part of the inbound leg of Orbit 14. The SPAN electron and ion data from SWEAP have been updated to version 04. Please check CDAWeb for the data and PSP inventory plot and annual inventory plots for details.
The NOAA NCEI
is retiring the satdat.ngdc.noaa.gov data access service on 2023 January 18. The new access points will be:
POES Space Environment Monitor (POES-SEM) [POES directory hierarchy also changes]
GOES Space Environment Monitor (GOES-SEM)
GOES Solar X-ray Imager (GOES-SXI)
DMSP Space Environment Sensors (DMSP SSJ4/5, SSIES, SSM)
The PSP data have been extended up to August 2022, covering the rest of Orbit 12 and part of the inbound leg of Orbit 13. EPI-Lo calculations have been updated affecting Quadrant 1 (look directions 20-39) fluxes and count rates. Please check the PSP inventory plot and annual inventory plots for details.
GOES magnetometer (MAG) high-resolution data is now available in CDAWeb for GOES-08 to GOES-17, covering the period between 1995 and present. The GOES MAG subsystem consists of fluxgate magnetometer instruments monitoring three orthogonal components of the geomagnetic field at geosynchronous orbit (L = 6.6) with high-resolution sampling rate (G8-15: 2 Hz and G16-17: 10 Hz).
The PSP data have been extended up to April 2022, covering the rest of Orbit 11 and part of the inbound leg of Orbit 12. Two new FIELDS datasets are added. They are Level 2 Antenna Electronics Board (AEB) data and Level 3 Simplified Quasi-Thermal Noise (SQTN) data using the Radio Frequency Spectrometer (RFS) spectra. Pitch angles are included in the ISOIS datasets whenever FIELDS data are available. EPI-Lo calibrations have been updated for apertures with thick entrance foils.
The PSP SWEAP and FIELDS data have been extended to December 2021, including Encounter 10 in November 2021 and Venus Gravity Assist 5 in October 2021. The ISOIS data have been extended to January 2022, covering part of the inbound leg of Orbit 11 as an addition. EPI-Hi data calibrations are updated and some variables are changed for ISOIS L2 summary data. Please check the PSP inventory plot and annual inventory plots for details.
The PSP data have been extended to November 2021, which covers Orbit 9 including Encounter 9 with perihelion in August 2021 and Venus Flyby 5 in October 2021. Two new SPAN-Ion data sets are added. As a mission focusing on solar encounters, the time coverage varies greatly between PSP data sets. Please check the PSP inventory plot and annual inventory plots for details.
The Ionospheric CONnection (ICON) Level 2 data products (in netCDF files) for MIGHTI, IVM, FUV and EUV are available via SPDF HTTPS and in CDAWeb. Likewise, the MAVEN Level 2 data products (in CDF files) for STATIC, SWIA, SWEA, and SEP are available via SPDF HTTPS and in CDAWeb.
The PSP data have been extended to June 2021 (for FIELDS) and July 2021 (for SWEAP and ISOIS), which covers all of Orbit 8, including Encounter 8 with perihelion in April 2021. The FIELDS and SWEAP data have updated quality flags. Because EPI-Lo species identification tables were updated on 14 June 2021, the ion composition (IC) files in this release have added the variables related to N and Ne count rates, although they are not populated yet.
One of the Let’s Encrypt root certificates (DST Root CA X3) expired on 2021 September 30. You may find that some web tools report that our SSL certificates cannot be verified. If so, please update those tools to support the latest root certificates, and to use OpenSSL 1.1.0 or later. This includes updating the root certificates used by curl and wget, and IDL (IDL 8.7.1 and 8.8’s ca-bundle.crt work). Compatible software package versions are listed at https://letsencrypt.org/docs/certificate-compatibility/.
The PSP data have been extended to March 2021, which includes Encounter 7, the rest of Orbit 7, and the 4th Venus flyby. Some SWEAP SPAN data sets had new variables added. The Fluxgate magnetic field data are reprocessed for the entire mission. The merged fluxgate and search coil magnetic field data are updated for Encounters 1-3, and the high-rate EPI-Hi data of ISOIS from 2020-11-30 to 2020-12-02 are not fully calibrated yet.
The Global-scale Observations of the Limb and Disk (GOLD) Level 1C data have been fully reprocessed with updated radiometric calibration and background subtraction. All Level 2 data products have been reprocessed using the new version of L1C data, as well as improved algorithms for the ON2, QEUV and TDISK data products. See the release notes for further information. The NMAX, ON2 and TDISK datasets are currently available in CDAWeb (with others coming soon).
The PSP data have been extended to December 2020 - February 2021 in the SPDF archive and CDAWeb, and include Encounter 6 and the rest of Orbit 6. Most of the ISOIS datasets include new variables. This release adds a new ISOIS ephemeris dataset, a new SWEAP alpha particle distribution dataset, and reprocessed Digital Fields Board (DFB) cross spectra and subset of FIELDS MAG data.
SPDF acknowledgements increase to near 40% The usage statistics and acknowledgments of our SPDF services have been compiled and published for the year 2020.
ICON level 0-Prime, 1 and 2 data files are in the SPDF ICON archive. The data sets will be added to the CDAWeb system soon.
To reach SPDF support services staff please use our new email address: NASA-SPDF-Support@nasa.onmicrosoft.com (for help with CDAWeb, SSCWeb, SPDF Web Services and OMNIWeb). To reach CDF support staff please use: NASA-CDF-Support@nasa.onmicrosoft.com.
The PSP data has been extended through August 2020, for most data sets, and includes encounter 5 and the remainder of orbit 5. The new data files were added to the CDAWeb system and to the SPDF PSP archive.
The in situ and ephemeris data from the Solar Orbiter mission are available at the SPDF Solar Orbiter archive. The Level 2 and above of science data as well as the low latency data are served at CDAWeb. All the data are mirrored from the ESA Solar Orbiter Archive.
The PSP FIELDS and SWEAP data has been extended through April 2020, for most data sets. The new data files were added to the CDAWeb system and to the SPDF PSP archive.
GOLD L2 data is coming into the archive more frequently. See the data and the release notes.
Alternate names for the web addresses for various SPDF websites have been deprecated and redirected to the standard name. For instance, please change any use of spdf.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov to https://spdf.gsfc.nasa.gov/ and cdaweb.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov to https://cdaweb.gsfc.nasa.gov/.
The Aeronomy of Ice in the Mesosphere (AIM) Cloud Imaging and Particle Size (CIPS) data products are available in the archive. Access the data and the documentation. The Polar Mesospheric Cloud (PMC) data are organized by hemisphere season each year, and the Rayleigh Albedo Anomaly (RAA) data are by month.
PSP data has been updated to 2020 January 14 (the start of the 4th orbit around the Sun). New data files have been added to the CDAWeb system and to the SPDF PSP archive. On 2020 February 10, the PSP data included the 3rd orbit about the Sun.
GOLD L1C and L1D data are being released more regularly now, beyond 11/30/2019. This includes Channel A and B data, except for Channel B data for the period 12/15/2018-3/15/2019 which are currently only available by special request from the GOLD website. The Level-2 data for O2DEN, beyond 8/13/2019, is also being released. The GOLD release notes and data, Revision 3.1 (2019 December 8), are available at the SPDF archive.
The Parker Solar Probe (PSP) data is available in the SPDF archive and all data sets are in CDAWeb.
GOLD L1C, L1D, and L2 data files (Channel A) have been replaced with a new version in the SPDF archive. L1C and L1D data were updated to include a flat-field correction (DAY, LIM, and OCC to version 02; NI1 to version 03). L1 data are available through 8/13/2019. L2 data products were updated based on the new L1 data. TDISK, TLIMB, O2DEN, and ON2 (v02) are available through 8/13/2019. The initial release of QEUV data (v01) is available through 1/31/2019.
As part of Federal policy to encrypt all network connections, FTP access to the SPDF and CDAWeb data archive was changed to TLS-encrypted FTPS on 2019 July 31. Browsers and traditional command line FTP will NO LONGER CONNECT with FTP, but HTTPS access remains. For more information and alternatives, see our FTPS Readme.
Robert McGuire started as a National Academy of Sciences (NAS) Post-doctoral Fellow at NASA Goddard in 1976, served as the last Project Scientist for the IMP-8 mission until 2006 and was the last designated Principal Investigator of the IMP-8 Goddard Medium Energy (GME) (energetic particle) experiment. He was the Associate Director for Science Information Systems in the Heliophysics Science Division at Goddard.
He has been succeeded by Robert M. Candey as the Project Scientist for SPDF with Lan Jian as the Deputy.
The Canned plot visualizer interface has been updated to display MMS Quick Look Summary plots.
Scientific data from many heliophysics missions are available at the Space Physics Data Facility (SPDF) through web pages or by using the Heliophysics Data Portal. This includes CDAWeb data browsing, SSCWeb orbit displays and the OMNIWeb as well as the CDF software pages.
All of these SPDF web sites and web services have changed from HTTP to HTTPS to provide assurance that you are accessing the servers you expect and not imposter sites. This change has been planned for some time and is in keeping with the rest of the US Government. FTP data access is not affected at this time.
For most people, this will be transparent since current versions of browsers will redirect automatically to the HTTPS pages. However, this may be an important and immediate concern for developers and users of SPDF Web Services inside Java, IDL or other software packages, since most web service calls will BREAK until updated to specify HTTPS instead.
SPDF web services and some clients - that need to be changed to HTTPS:
CDAS:
https://cdaweb.gsfc.nasa.gov/WebServices/
SSC:
https://sscweb.gsfc.nasa.gov/WebServices/
IDL CREADER:
https://hpde.gsfc.nasa.gov/CDAWeb_to_IDL.html
Calls to OMNIweb inside software packages:
https://omniweb.gsfc.nasa.gov/
Also SPDF web services from the SPEDAS IDL library:
http://spedas.org/wiki/
Clients running with recent run-time environments (e.g., Java 1.8.0_102, IDL 8.5.1, etc. or newer) will likely not have a problem using HTTPS. Clients using an older run-time may have to update their environment with newer Certificate Authority (CA) root certificates. Additional information about accessing these web services over HTTPS is available at https://sscweb.gsfc.nasa.gov/WebServices/https.html
Any questions or comments concerning this release should be emailed to NASA-SPDF-Support@nasa.onmicrosoft.com.
Common Data Format (CDF)Version 3.6.3.1 is now available. This release contains a minor change to the earlier release of V3.6.3.0 and includes a new leap second added for 1/1/2017. Please read the change notes that describe the changes made in this release, as well as all previous releases. Updates for Perl, IDL, Matlab, and Java interfaces and the Skeleton Editor for CDF are also available.
Sunspot Number Index values 1963-2015 in OMNI have been updated to the revised Version 2 definition now used by the Royal Observatory of Belgium. The updated values are generally larger by factors 1.2-1.7 and can be compared in detail using OMNIWeb’s sunspot index comparison tool.
The Space Physics Data Facility (SPDF) at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center has issued an important update to its Common Data Format (CDF) package of software APIs and tools. We strongly urge all CDF users to promptly upgrade their CDF software to this latest release (version 3.6) to better ensure the correct handling of times after the 2015 June 30 leap second. Updates for Perl, IDL, Matlab, and Java interfaces are also available. CDAWeb is currently receiving and also producing CDF 3.6 files.
Besides many minor software updates and fixes, this release includes an updated internal leap second table and now preserves (in the CDF file header) this latest leap second available when a CDF is written. This enables a warning when CDF_TIME_TT2000 times may have been computed with an out-of-date leap second table and thus may be incorrect. CDFconvert has additional options for sorting on a specified variable, resetting the blocking factor, updating the CDF header for the latest leap second, and adjusting CDF_TIME_TT2000 times written with an out-dated leap second table. For further details, see the CDF release notes.
The SPDF’s SKTEditor program was also upgraded for this new release and includes additional validation options.
We also encourage all to subscribe to the CDF Announcements email list to receive warnings of future leap seconds and other CDF issues. As always, please report any problems, issues or questions to NASA-SPDF-Support@nasa.onmicrosoft.com.
by Michael Liu and Robert Candey
NASA’s Space Physics Data Facility (SPDF) is pleased to announce the release of Version 3.5.0 of the CDF software. In addition to many minor software updates and fixes, the software now includes the open source version of zlib for doing gzip compression, new support for Visual Basic for Windows, additional C/Fortran functions and enhancements to the toolkit programs. For further details please read the CDF release notes.
NOAA’s National Geophysical Data Center (NGDC) and NASA’s Space Physics Data Facility (SPDF) are pleased to announce a joint long-term effort to make a variety of appropriate current GOES and POES heliophysics data available through SPDF’s CDAWeb multi-mission data service. As the first of many data products we expect to eventually support, current GOES 13 and 15 1-minute and 5-minute electron flux data from the Energetic Particle Suite (EPS) Magnetospheric Energetic Detectors (MagEDs) are now available in CDAWeb including graphics, listings, superset/subsets in CDF, FTP/HTTP downloads, via CDAWeb web services calls and within IDL sessions using the SPDF’s CDAS library. GOES 14 MagED data for Oct-Nov 2012 (before this spacecraft was put in orbital storage) are also available.
CDAWeb access supplements the existing distribution of this data in CSV and netCDF format from the NGDC archival services. MagED data consist of electron fluxes 40 - 475 keV in 9 look directions, with data from GOES 13 from January 2011 through June 2013, data from GOES 15 from February 2011 to the present.
With thanks and all credit to the dedicated work of the project and instrument teams, the Space Physics Data Facility is pleased to announce availability in CDAWeb of some 70 new Level-2 and Level-3 datasets from the Van Allen Probes spacecraft, previously known as the Radiation Belt Storm Probes or RBSP. While additional datasets will become available over the next few months, this data collection fully spans the range of measurements from particles-plasma (RBSPICE, ECT) through magnetic-electric fields and waves (EMFISIS, EFW) with data generally current to within 60 days or less. The research community is referred to the project pages and particularly to the information and links on the Science Gateway page for more complete descriptions of the spacecraft and instruments, the correct meaning and appropriate use of Van Allen data, space weather and summary plots of various kinds, and a range of other highly useful and more specialized data services at the instrument sites. The full set of data and services for the Van Allen Probes will be the focus of a special session on Tuesday afternoon June 18th at the GEM meeting in Snowmass, Colorado.
The project, instrument teams and SPDF hope that including these already-public data in the CDAWeb database will make access and use of this data (e.g. plots, listings, supersets and subsets, direct downloads by FTP and HTTP, links to key capabilities at the instrument team sites) more convenient for the science community. Having this range of data in CDAWeb makes comparison of data among instruments and spacecraft much easier, as well as comparisons and analysis of these data versus current data from other missions such as THEMIS, TWINS, Cluster, ACE, Wind and the >120 ground magnetometer stations also in CDAWeb. All these data are also available through the SPDF web- services interfaces and e.g. our spdfcdawebchooser routine that allows direct selection and ingest of data from CDAWeb into an IDL session (cf.SPDF’s Cdas library)., Van Allen Probes orbits are fully supported in our SSCWeb and 4-D Orbit Viewer services.
On 2012 September 24 and 25, the Space Physics Data Facility (SPDF) renamed and restructured its FTP and HTTP accessible directories. This newly unified structure merges CDAWeb files already served by SPDF with legacy heliophysics data holdings that have been served by the National Space Science Data Center (NSSDC) on nssdcftp.gsfc.nasa.gov. The responsibility for the final archiving of heliophysics has been transferred from NSSDC to SPDF (for non-solar instruments) and to Solar Data Analysis Center (SDAC) (for solar instruments). SPDF will also serve legacy solar instrument data previously served by NSSDC on at least an interim basis.
All heliophysics data and other files previously accessible separately
from NSSDCftp or CDAWeb are accessible from any of the following links:
FTP SPDF,
SPDF,
FTP CDAWeb,
CDAWeb.
Other SPDF services are unchanged.
Any databases or services that point to specific server and directory locations on CDAWeb and NSSDCftp will need to update their records to these new locations. A list of directories as now moved (current and new locations) is posted here.
Changes to CDAWeb data directories are listed first and directories moved from NSSDCftp are listed second. Data now on NSSDCftp may continue to be available on NSSDCftp for a limited time after this official move.
SPDF regrets that this level of re-naming and re-structuring of our data holdings cannot be made fully transparent to users. Please report any problems and discrepancies to us at NASA-SPDF-Support@nasa.onmicrosoft.com.
Along with the Solar Data Analysis Center (SDAC), the Space Physics Data Facility (SPDF) is charged with ensuring the long-term preservation and ongoing availability of important data from NASA heliophysics investigations, with interest as well in other data relevant to current NASA heliophysics science objectives.
SPDF is concerned that important data from older missions (past and current) are at increasing risk of being lost as projects and their funding expire, and as the scientists responsible for the data move to new missions, change responsibilities or retire. So I ask that you please carefully consider the status of any data you may now hold:
Everyone with a direct role in collecting or analyzing space data knows the investment in time and resources represented in such data. For the data you hold and work with, you know the important science in your data that may still remain unexploited. Very high time resolution measurements and particle distribution functions are among the kinds of data that could be of special interest.
If you have or know of existing heliophysics data that might be a concern, please contact me as the Project Scientist for SPDF. We welcome the opportunity to work with you to preserve such data and keep it available for future use by the heliophysics research community.
As many of you probably already know, NASA’s Heliophysics Science Division at NASA HQs issued a revised Heliophysics Science Data Management Policy. This revised policy redefined the Heliophysics role of the National Space Science Data Center (NSSDC) at Goddard to be solely that of a “deep archive” and defined a new role for the Space Physics Data Facility (SPDF) to be one of two “active Final Archives” charged to work with NASA HQs to ensure the long-term accessibility and availability of all important NASA heliophysics data.
This policy has generally superseded all prior definitions of the archiving role of NSSDC in heliophysics mission PDMPs or other arrangements. Delivery of all archival products from Heliophysics missions or investigations should be expected to be to the SPDF rather than NSSDC. If you have any concerns or questions, please contact us by phone or through the “Feedback” link on this page.
CDF now supports two new data types, INTEGER*8 (signed 8-byte integers) and time_TT2000 (which correctly and unambiguously handles leap seconds and carries nanosecond precision in 8 bytes). CDF 3.4 also includes numerous bug fixes, security improvements and performance enhancements. USERS ARE STRONGLY URGED TO UPGRADE TO THIS NEWEST RELEASE AT THEIR EARLIEST CONVENIENCE. Updates for Perl, IDL, Matlab and Java interfaces are also available on the CDF website.
The SSCWeb service and its database have been fully converted to Linux and are now operational on a new server. Users should see greatly improved performance of the SSCWeb user interface and the SSCWeb web services interface, as well as server-side database operations and computations of the 4D Orbit Viewer.
Both RBSP and MMS have decided to use to our CDF format for their public science data and to supply their public data to our CDAWeb service as part of their commitment to ensure their data are properly archived and to make their science data fully public and easily accessible. We are gratified that these major new projects find our services useful and relevant, and we look forward to serving these data as they become available. Note RBSP’s scheduled launch is later this summer
The old Cluster ephemeris data has been moved to “Cluster-* (superceded)” and the new, up to date ephemeris is called “Cluster_*“. Download pdf for the details. If you have any questions, after reading the above documentation, please email NASA-SPDF-Support@nasa.onmicrosoft.com
