Visualization of Distributed Solar Data and Metadata with the Solar Weather Browser

Abstract

The Solar Weather Browser (SWB) is a standalone, open-source software tool designed to display solar images with context overlays. It was originally developed for the space-weather forecast activities of the Solar Influence Data analysis Center (SIDC) but it is more generally well suited to display the output of solar-feature recognition methods. The SWB is also useful in the context of distributed solar-image archives, where it could play the role of a quick-look viewer. The SWB allows the user to visually browse large solar data sets and investigate the solar activity for a given date. It has a client - server design that minimizes the bandwidth from the network to the user's monitor. The server processes the data using the SolarSoft library and distributes them through a Web server to which the SWB client connects. The client is readily available for Linux, Mac OS X, and Windows at http://sidc.be/SWB. We discuss the software technology embedded in the SWB as well as its use for solar physics and space weather.