NetCDF (Network Common Data Format)
GOLD data products are written in NetCDF file format and are not human-readable. Information about NetCDF is available on the Unidata web site. A list of third-party software that can be used to manipulate or display NetCDF data is available on Unidata’s NetCDF software page.
GOLD NetCDF reader for IDL
The IDL procedure below can be used to read GOLD L1C and L2 data files into IDL:
GOLD Stellar Occultation catalog
The “gold_occultation_catalog.csv” file below includes a list of all occultation measurements that GOLD has made to date (not including data that are still in review or observations held back for data issues).
The listing for each occultation includes:
- DATE: ISO 8601 formatted UTC timestamp
- INPUT_FILENAME: The filename of the GOLD L1C OCC file that contains the occultation data
- TDB_TIME: TDB seconds since January 1 2000 11:58:55.816 UTC at start of L1C time bin
- STAR_NAME: Name of occulting star in GOLD field-of-view
- RIGHT_ASCENSION: Right ascension of occulting star in arcminutes
- DECLINATION: Declination of occulting star in arcminutes
- SOLAR_ZENITH_ANGLE: Planar angle the sun direction to the reference point and reference point normal (degrees)
- LATITUDE: Tangent point latitude relative to fixed earth frame of line to star (degrees)
- LONGITUDE: Tangent point longitude relative to fixed earth frame of line to star (degrees)
GOLD 135.6 nm images in KNMI’s Space Weather Timeline Viewer
The Space Weather Timeline Viewer is a tool developed at the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI). It is an open-source, interactive web application that aims to provide a user experience for viewing space weather data similar to the experience people are used to from geospatial tools like Google Maps. The tool allows users to stack and layer graphs using different data sources, as well as pan and zoom between space weather events.
GOLD 135.6 nm quick-look images have now been incorporated into the tool, which allows users to browse those GOLD images together with data from ESA’s Swarm mission. In addition to the GOLD images, the user interface shows the Swarm orbits from the same perspective as GOLD, timeseries plots of the Swarm plasma density observations, and the Hp30 geomagnetic index, which will allow users to quickly be able to identify geomagnetically active periods:
https://spaceweather.knmi.nl/viewer/?layout=swarm_switch_gold
Update: GOLD data from the May 10-12 Mother’s Day geomagnetic storm has been added to the viewer with an adjusted color scale that allows better viewing of the details of the aurora on the nightside and the dayside oxygen emission during the storm: