Solarsoft
Encyclopedia
Solarsoft is a collaborative software development system created at Lockheed-Martin to support solar data analysis and spacecraft
operation activities. It is widely recognized in the solar physics
community as having revolutionized solar data analysis starting in the early 1990s. Solarsoft is in active development and use by research groups on all seven continents.
Solarsoft is a store-and-forward system that makes use of rsync
, csh
and other UNIX tools to distribute the software to a wide variety of platforms. Solarsoft predates CVS
and most other collaborative development systems; hence, it does not provide direct support for many features that today would be considered necessary, such as software versioning. The use of Solarsoft has grown to include calibration data and even complete catalog indices for some instruments, as well as the scientific software.
Most of the software in the Solarsoft tree pertains to either solar data analysis or specific space missions or observatories
such as Yohkoh
or SOHO
. The vast majority is written in IDL, the most commonly used analysis platform in the solar physics community, though some C
, ana
, and PDL
modules are also available.
Spacecraft
A spacecraft or spaceship is a craft or machine designed for spaceflight. Spacecraft are used for a variety of purposes, including communications, earth observation, meteorology, navigation, planetary exploration and transportation of humans and cargo....
operation activities. It is widely recognized in the solar physics
Solar physics
For the physics journal, see Solar Physics Solar physics is the study of our Sun. It is a branch of astrophysics that specializes in exploiting and explaining the detailed measurements that are possible only for our closest star...
community as having revolutionized solar data analysis starting in the early 1990s. Solarsoft is in active development and use by research groups on all seven continents.
Solarsoft is a store-and-forward system that makes use of rsync
Rsync
rsync is a software application and network protocol for Unix-like and Windows systems which synchronizes files and directories from one location to another while minimizing data transfer using delta encoding when appropriate. An important feature of rsync not found in most similar...
, csh
C shell
The C shell is a Unix shell that was created by Bill Joy while a graduate student at University of California, Berkeley in the late 1970s. It has been distributed widely, beginning with the 2BSD release of the BSD Unix system that Joy began distributing in 1978...
and other UNIX tools to distribute the software to a wide variety of platforms. Solarsoft predates CVS
Concurrent Versions System
The Concurrent Versions System , also known as the Concurrent Versioning System, is a client-server free software revision control system in the field of software development. Version control system software keeps track of all work and all changes in a set of files, and allows several developers ...
and most other collaborative development systems; hence, it does not provide direct support for many features that today would be considered necessary, such as software versioning. The use of Solarsoft has grown to include calibration data and even complete catalog indices for some instruments, as well as the scientific software.
Most of the software in the Solarsoft tree pertains to either solar data analysis or specific space missions or observatories
Space observatory
A space observatory is any instrument in outer space which is used for observation of distant planets, galaxies, and other outer space objects...
such as Yohkoh
Yohkoh
Yohkoh , known before launch as Solar-A, was a Solar observatory spacecraft of the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science with United States and United Kingdom collaboration...
or SOHO
Solar and Heliospheric Observatory
The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory is a spacecraft built by a European industrial consortium led by Matra Marconi Space that was launched on a Lockheed Martin Atlas IIAS launch vehicle on December 2, 1995 to study the Sun, and has discovered over 2100 comets. It began normal operations in May...
. The vast majority is written in IDL, the most commonly used analysis platform in the solar physics community, though some C
C (programming language)
C is a general-purpose computer programming language developed between 1969 and 1973 by Dennis Ritchie at the Bell Telephone Laboratories for use with the Unix operating system....
, ana
Ana (language)
In contexts of solar physics and data analysis, ana is a somewhat whimsically named computer language that is designed for array processing and image data analysis. The name is an acronym for "A Non Acronym". Ana began as a fork of an early version of IDL, but has diverged significantly since then...
, and PDL
Perl Data Language
PDL is a set of array programming extensions to the Perl programming language.PDL is an extension to Perl v5, intended for scientific and other data intensive programming tasks...
modules are also available.