This page describes an IDL library that provides easy access to CDAWeb data from an IDL
program. With this library, an IDL user can retrieve data from
CDAWeb by entering a single IDL command.
The data is automatically downloaded and read into an IDL structure
(with its associated metadata/documentation) in the user's local IDL
environment. The user can then write their own IDL code to
analyze or visualize the data. This is further illustrated with
an IDL Jupyter
notebook example. There is also a GUI program to make discovering and
retrieving CDAWeb data even easier. Finally, there is an example program that
demonstrates many of the lower-level calls for those who want to
incorporate CDAWeb data access into a larger IDL program.
The purpose of this GUI is to allow the user to retrieve data from
CDAWeb into their local IDL environment without having to know the
values of the parameters (e.g., AC_K2_MFI, Magnitude, BGSEc,
etc.) to
the spdfGetData function. Once the user selects the
data they want from CDAWeb, this program can retrieve the data and
place it in an IDL structure. The user can then
enter any IDL commands to analyze, alter, or visualize the data.
IDL> spdfcdawebchooser
Change the dataview if you wish
Select one or more Mission Groups (e.g., ACE)
Select one or more Instrument Types (e.g., Magnetic
Fields)
Select the Find Datasets button
Select one or more variables from a single dataset (e.g.,
AC_K2_MFI: Magnitude, BGSEc)
Enter a Start and Stop time
Change the variable name if you wish
Select the Get Data button
IDL> help, data.varname.dat,
/struct ; where varname
is the name of a selected variable (e.g., data.magnitude.data)
Perform any IDL operations on the data that you want (e.g. plot,
data.magnitude.dat)
Notes:
If instead of reading the data into the current IDL environment,
if you just want the IDL code to perform the operation so it can be
incorporated into some other IDL program, replace step 9 above with the
selection of the Show IDL button.