SunPy - Solar Physics Analysis

SunPy is built on top of the Astropy ecosystem but extends it with functionalities required by solar physicists. Its core strengths are the Map object for 2D imaging data, TimeSeries for light curves, and the Fido interface for unified data searching across multiple repositories.

When to Use

• Searching and downloading solar data from VSO, JSOC, and other archives.
• Visualizing solar images (EUV, magnetograms, white light).
• Transforming coordinates between different solar frames (e.g., Stonyhurst to Helioprojective).
• Analyzing solar time series data (GOES X-ray flux, sunspot counts).
• Correcting for solar differential rotation.
• Overlapping data from different instruments (e.g., AIA and HMI).
• Performing limb-fitting and feature tracking on the solar disk.

Reference Documentation

Official docs: https://docs.sunpy.org/
SunPy Gallery: https://docs.sunpy.org/en/stable/generated/gallery/index.html
Search patterns: sunpy.map.Map, sunpy.net.Fido, sunpy.coordinates.frames, sunpy.timeseries