Data and Quicklook plots

In this section, we assume that we know the OBSERVATION.OID we want to request. Section 3.2 will detail how to extract them.

A SOHO data request consists of a TAP request that the user has to build using a start syntax and several parameters. Once this request is sent, the ESA SOHO Science Archive (SSA) backend returns the data that matches the given criteria. If the number of resulting files is more than one, the system will create a tar file automatically.

3.1.1. Data files

The files associated to the SOHO mission are uniquely identified by an OBSERVATION.OID for observation files and a Product type for postcards. The following table exposes the required parameters to be used in the product retrievals. A lot of Solar Orbiter products are provided as daily files, specified in the filenames. 

Parameter name

Description

Mandatory?

Possible value(s)
TAP server SOHO TAP server
command to request science, planning or telemetry files 		 Yes

 

https://ssa.esac.esa.int/ssa-sl-tap/data? 
ADQL query

ADQL query requesting the a specific observation.oid, i.e. the unique product identifier for any given data file (i.e. observation)

 Yes

QUERY=WHERE+observation_oid+=+XXXXXXXXX
where XXXXXXXXX is the observation.oid number
retrieval_type Should be equal to OBSERVATION to download any data product apart from postcard (i.e. JPEG image of FITS file, see section 3.1.2). Yes

RETRIEVAL_TYPE=OBSERVATION


Please note here the underscore "_" between RETRIEVAL and TYPE, this is different from the SAIO subsystem

3.1 - Table 1: Parameters of a TAP request to download data files from the SOHO archive

Let's try to download the file related to observation.oid=190418205 corresponding to the CELIAS Proton Monitor missions long file CELIAS_Proton_Monitor_5min.tar.gz (just copy paste the link below into a web browser, this mission long file shall start being downloaded within a few seconds)

https://ssa.esac.esa.int/ssa-sl-tap/data?retrieval_type=OBSERVATION&QUERY=WHERE+observation_oid+=+190418205

This is equivalent to the SAIO command

http://ssa.esac.esa.int/ssa/aio/product-action?OBSERVATION.ID=190418205&RETRIEVALTYPE=PRODUCT

3.1.2. Postcards and latest postcards

Postcards are jpeg versions of the FITS files of EIT, LASCO or MDI, at 512x512 or 1024x1024 resolution.

Parameter name

Description

Mandatory?

Possible value(s)
TAP server SOHO TAP server
command to request science, planning or telemetry files 		 Yes

 

https://ssa.esac.esa.int/ssa-sl-tap/data? 
ADQL query

ADQL query requesting the a specific observation.oid, i.e. the unique product identifier for any given data file (i.e. observation)

 Yes for retrieval_type POSTCARD

QUERY=WHERE+observation_oid+=+XXXXXXXXX
where XXXXXXXXX is the observation.oid number
RETRIEVAL_TYPE

POSTCARD for a specific postcard
LAST_IMAGE queries the last version of a POSTCARD. 
 

 Yes 

One of the following
retrieval_type=POSTCARD&
retrieval_type=LAST_IMAGE&

Please note here the underscore "_" between RETRIEVAL and TYPE, this is different from the SAIO subsystem
INSTRUMENT Instrument of the postcard Yes One of the following
INSTRUMENT=EIT&
INSTRUMENT=LASCO&
MODE Secondary filter to apply after the instrument. It means either the wavelength (for EIT), the detector (for LASCO) Yes

One of the following
for EIT
MODE=171 or MODE=195 or MODE=284 or MODE=304

for LASCO
MODE=C2 or MODE=C3

was called FILTER in the SAIO subsytem.
RESOLUTION Resolution of the retrieved postcard. By default, 1024x1024 No

Set
RESOLUTION=512 if you want to download a 512x512 image

3.1 - Table 2: Parameters of a TAP request to download postcards from the SOHO archive

 

Here are two examples to retrieve the latest snapshots JPEG images of EIT at 195 Å and latest image for LASCO C2

Latest archive postcards for EIT, with wavelength 195:

https://ssa.esac.esa.int/ssa-sl-tap/data?RETRIEVAL_TYPE=LAST_IMAGE&INSTRUMENT=EIT&MODE=195

Latest archive postcards for LASCO instrument C2:

https://ssa.esac.esa.int/ssa-sl-tap/data?RETRIEVAL_TYPE=LAST_IMAGE&INSTRUMENT=LASCO&MODE=C2

Currently only possible to request LAST_IMAGE for LASCO and EIT, not from MDI anymore

 

Equivalent examples from the old command line subsystem

Latest archive postcards for EIT, with wavelength 195

http://ssa.esac.esa.int/ssa/aio/product-action?RETRIEVALTYPE=LATEST_POSTCARD&INSTRUMENT=EIT&FILTER=195

Latest archive postcards for LASCO instrument C2

http://ssa.esac.esa.int/ssa/aio/product-action?RETRIEVALTYPE=LATEST_POSTCARD&FILTER=C2&INSTRUMENT=LASCO

Latest archive postcards for MDI with 'Magnetogram 96m' observation type (switched off in 2011)

http://ssa.esac.esa.int/ssa/aio/product-action?RETRIEVALTYPE=LATEST_POSTCARD&FILTER=Magnetogram%2096m&INSTRUMENT=MDI