Web interface in the HelioPhysics Archive (HPA) 

Welcome to the user guide for the web interface of the Solar Orbiter ARchive (SOAR) data in HPA. This graphical user interface (GUI) of version HPA 1.0, is the first version that contains all features of the classical SOAR (https://soar.esac.esa.int/soar/) - and many new functionalities as described below. On the long-term, this new HPA/SOAR GUI will replace the classical SOAR GUI.

Contents

1. Accessing the SOAR web interface in HPA 

2. Searching for data

3. Search results display 

4. Downloading data

 

1. Accessing the SOAR web interface in HPA

To access the SOAR GUI in HPA, connect to https://hpa.esa.int.  As shown in Figure 1, this HPA landing page contains tiles for all ESA Heliophysics missions. To access Solar Orbiter data,  click on the respective tile and then on "Data". 

In addition to data access,  there is also the option to access the SOAR help pages or the Field-of-View (FoV) tool.
This tool gives an overview of the fields-of-view for all remote-sensing high-resolution sensors of Solar Orbiter over nearly the entire mission. It is explained more in detail here.  

Figure 1: Landing page of the ESA HelioPhysics Archive. For Solar Orbiter you can directly access the data, have a look at the field-of-view plots or go the SOAR help pages.

 


 

2. Searching for data

The Search panel is located on the left of the interface. As public user, one can select between different search tabs: 
- Science
- Auxilary

The main search panel is the Science panel, which gives the user direct access to all measurements of Solar Orbiter`s ten instruments. This panel is explained in detail below and is shwon in Figure 2. The Auxiliary search tab  (not shown here) allows to search for files with additional information about the spacecraft orbit and attitude (i.e. SPICE kernels).


Figure 2: The Science search panel of HPA/SOAR contains several options to constrain the search. 

 

2.1 The Science search panel  

As shown in Figure 2, the Science panel allows you to select among the following search fields (all of them are optional) to search for Science files: 

  • Time range of the observation
     
  • Specific instruments
  • Processing level
    • Level 3: value-added datasets
    • Level 2: science-calibrated data
    • Level 1:  engineering-calibrated data 
    • Level 0: decommutated telemetry
      • Please note here that the default for scientific use of the data is Level-2 and Level-3 data. 
      • Level 1 data can be useful for expert users in specific science users, while L0 files are raw data as received from the spacecraft.
      • If you are uncertain, which data to use, please have a look at the Data Product Description Documents (DPDD) and Release Notes on our instrument documentation page - or contact contact us  directly.
         
  • Filename
    • to search for specific type of filenames, any text can be put into this box and will be treated as a case-insensitive text search with wildcards (*) either end (? can be used as a single character wildcard) of all the filenames, e.g., ‘HRI’ or ‘swa-eas-padc_20220925T052734’
       
  • Solar Orbiter Observing Plan (SOOP)
    • All SOOPs are given a long name and a short name (type). This dropdown box will allow one SOOP to be chosen and all data observed stamped in the data with that SOOP will be returned. Note that it is only applicable to remote sensing instruments. 
    • Full information on SOOPs
       
  • Search-by-distance:
    • Solar Orbiter has a highly eccentric orbit so that its distance to the Sun varies between 0.28 and 1.02 au (astronomical units). This search functionalty allows to filter for the spacecraft distance to the Sun. Please note, that currently the search-results can be only shown in file-listing view when search-by-distance is active (see Section 3 for details).
       
  •  Include also:
    • Low-Latency files:  
      • This tickbox allows the search for near-real-time observations from Solar Orbiter from the most recent days in the past. Please note that these data is not necessarily calibrated to science-quality and we recommend to contact the PI-Team before using these files for science studies. When this tickbox is selected, the user can specify the low-latency processing level (LL02 or LL03) in the processing level search field and also unselect regular science files..
    • Inactive files:
      • This tick box only applies to EUI files. These files are earlier versions of EUI files which have changed name and are only included for completeness and reproducability. These files should not be used for new science studies.
         
  • The search history button (in the shape of a clock surrounded by an arrow)
    • which allows you to select and resume former searches. If you hover over this button and select a specific search you can also see the time of your search and all applied search criteria in detail. 
        
  • The Search and Clear buttons
    • to start the search or to clear all the criteria, respectively.
       

Please note that by default, each search field is set to 'All', and so an empty search will return all the latest active files. The more constraints are given, the quicker the search.  All searches should be performed in less than 30 seconds - and typically within a few seconds for well-constrained searches. All search fields are explained in more details in the info box (i) next to them.

 

3. Search results display

Once a search is performe, the search results are displayed on the right side of the web interface.

As a new key-feature of HPA/SOAR these results can be explored in two different views:

- via the new tree-view 

- via the classical file-listing view

Both views are explained in the following.

 

 

3.1 The tree-view 

This view is shown in Figure 3.1 and structures the archive data in several tree-branches -  following the general scheme: instrument, sensor, data product. This allows for a logical exploration of the archive data and exploring its data products one-by-one.

Figure 3.1: Tree-view example for a search with all instruments. Remote-sensing and in-situ instruments have their separate branch. For each instrument, the branch unfolds then in a specific way which is shown here for EUI down to sensor level.

 

 

3.2 The file-listing view

The classical file-listing view is shown in Figure 3.1, where we have the all searched files listed by observation date (earliest observation first). This view contains the most important file information about: Item ID and descriptor (to identify filename and data product), processing level, begin- and end-time of the observation, instrument, sensor, file size, archiving date, and format.

  • Please note in the file-listing:
    • that for all CDF and FITS files, a click on the blue-colored Item ID opens up a metadata panel, which shows much more information about the contained file data. 
    • EUI L2 files have also a "postcard" png image in the very left column that can be enlarged by hovering snd clicking on it. This provides a quicklook of the observation as explained in detail below.    

Figure 3.2: File-listing view for the example of EUI files.

 

3.2.1 Quick look images for EUI

The EUI L2 (fully processed data) results come with a series of images as quicklooks: smallest 'icons' in the results table rows - hover over this to display a slightly larger 'thumbnail':

Figure 3.2.1 EUI Quicklook feature

Clicking on this thumbnail will bring up a larger 'postcard' which can be downloaded as a PNG. Note that the quality of this quick look image is not of publication quality, and all use the full range of brightness from each individual file, and so not suitable for assembling a movie. Please use the L3 JP2 files for the consistent dynamic range.

As an additional feature it is possible to send (single) EUI files via SAMP to the external JHelioviewer tool directly from the postcard window. This can be done via the "radar" button in the upper right corner of the postcard. Please note that JHelioviewer needs to be installed on your machine and active before using this feature.

 

 

4. Downloading files

After selecting individual files or a group of files in the results view, these files can be downloaded by the download button in the upper right corner of the web interface. 


Figure 4: Asynchronous download request for large downloads (between 2 and 50 GB). The user needs to be registered and logged-in. The download link is then sent via email.  

 

For a total download size up to 2 GB, the download will start directly at the time of clicking the button.

For downloads above a total size of 2 GB and up to 50 GB, the user needs to be registered in Cosmos (here) and logged in. In this case, clicking the download button will start an asynchonous download where the user will receive an email with a download link and unique ID (for distinguishing several downloads) once the whole file package is prepared for download on the ESA server.

Please note that this download preparation can take up to one hour for large downloads of several tens of GB. As this preparation time is increasing non-linearly with the download size, it is recommended to split very large downloads into several download requests between 10 and 30 GB, each. The overall size of the download request is displayed in the doewnload mask as shown in Figure 4. For distinguishung several downloads, each of these is marked with a unique ID that shows up in a pop-up window and will be also marked in the download email.   

Downloads above 50 GB in total size are currently not possible. Please note also, that a download limit of 100 GB for each user is currently in place. This will block further downloads for the next 72 hours.