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Below, please find quickstart guides and reference material for all systems and software packages that can read ISTP compliant CDFs. There are two methods for doing this, using a system like CDAWeb and a GUI application or using a software library in one of the available languages.
SPDF developed Coordinated Data Analysis Workshop (CDAWeb) Web data browsing tool for Heliophysics data. This web based system will plot, list, create superset/subset CDF files and deliver original data files of interest for hundreds of of datasets.” Web Services APIs are also available to provide these same products to programmers.
If the files of interest are in the archive and supported by the CDAWeb system, the files can be read, plotted, listed, and downloaded from the browser based system. For users writing their own reading/analysis software, the CDF software distribution supports reading of files in many languages from many hardware platforms, e.g. Python, C, Fortran, Perl, Java, IDL, MATLAB and C#. The CDF library, for each programming language, provides the routines to read attributes and variables in a variety of ways, See below.
is an IDL based software tool with a GUI available in the CDAWlib library that not only reads, edits, and displays the contents of a CDF file but can also be used for time subsetting, plotting, listing and fine tuning the metadata. It too requires the local installation of IDL.
is a RESTful web service that interfaces with the CDAWeb data browsing system and thus provides access to all of the same data as the web based CDAWeb system described above. SPDF has developed an API in both Python (cdasws) and IDL® (spdfcdas). However, CDAS access only requires the ability to send and receive HTTP requests, so other mechanisms for access may exist across the various programming languages.
An interactive JAVA based data browser; given a URL or file on your computer it will attempt to make a plot of the data with any provided metadata. Autoplot was developed under the NASA Heliophysics Data & Model Consortium (HDMC) program in a collaborative effort among several institutions, including support or code contributions from PDS-PPI Node, RBSP-ECT, and the Radio and Plasma Wave Group at The University of Iowa.
Below are the supported languages, associated quick start guides, user/reference guides and other libraries:
| Language | Quick Start Guide | User/Reference Guide and Other libraries |
|---|---|---|
| C# | C# | C# User Guide |
| C | C | C User Guide |
| Fortran | Fortran | Fortran User Guide |
| IDL | IDL | SPDF IDL CDF Routines IDL Internal Routines SPEDAS |
| MATLAB® | MATLAB® | SPDF Matlab routines Matlab Internal Routines |
| Perl | Perl | Perl User Guide |
| Python | Python (CDFlib, SpacePy, CDAS, pySPEDAS) | pySPEDAS CDFlib SpacePy CDAS |
| Java | Java | Java User Guide |
Learn more FAQ.
