ACE Level 2 Data Server

Beta-test Version

Unattended downloading of ACE data

Instead of filling out a web form, ACE data can also be obtained via a (fairly) simple URL, for example:

http://www.srl.caltech.edu/ACE/ASC/level2/new/ACEL2Server.cgi?datasetID=mag_level2_data_1hr&TPARAM=year&TPARAM=fp_doy&PARAM=Bmag&PARAM=Bgse_z&sd=2008-08-01&st=00:00:00&ed=2008-08-02&et=23:59:59&dataformat=TEXT&nonint=1

You can edit this URL to download the same data for other time periods, or to download data for other available parameters in the data set, or even for other data sets.

Valid values for the datasetID, TPARAM and PARAM parameters embedded in the URL above may be extracted from SPASE descriptions of ACE data sets. These SPASE data descriptions are published by the ACE Science Center and provided to the Virtual Observatories - Some examples.

• datasetID: the ProviderResourceName element in the ResourceHeader of a NumericalData SPASE description.

• TPARAM and PARAM: the ParameterKey element in each of the Parameter elements of a NumericalData SPASE description.
  Note: this server users TPARAM to distinguish time data (e.g. year, day_of_year, etc) from other data parameters.

The sd and ed parameters indicate the start- and end-dates. The required format is YYYY-MM-DD.

The st and et parameters indicate the start-time on the start-date, and the end-time on the end-date (UT). The required format is HH:MM:SS.

The dataformat parameter indicates the format for the delivered data. Currently the allowed values are "TEXT" (ascii text file) and "TSPLOT" (time-series PNG plot).

The nonint parameter indicates to the server that the transaction is non-interactive. No web-page will be built, and the results of the query will be streamed to the client as a text attachment to a message with the following mime-types:

Content-type: application/plain-text
Content-disposition: attachment; filename="[datasetID].xxx"

where "xxx" is either "txt" or "png", depending on the value of the dataformat parameter.

Modern versions of wget handle this scheme happily, and save the data to the filename specified in the MIME header. Use the wget "-O filename" or "--content-disposition" commandline options, and enclose the URL in quotes.

Other download schemes are possible in the future, possibly selected via alternate values of the nonint parameter.

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