Overview

In order to facilitate third-party application developers who wish to use content from and interact with Helioviewer.org, a number of APIs have been developed, offering access to a variety of components used by Helioviewer. All of the interfaces are accessed using HTML query strings. The simplest APIs require only a single URI, and result in some resource being returned, e.g. a movie or JP2 image series, or some action being performed, e.g. loading a particular "view" into Helioviewer. Some API methods are more complex and involve two steps. For example, in order to get a list of solar events for a certain period of time, first a query is usually made to see which Feature Recognition Methods (or FRMs) include events for that time period. A second query then returns a list of features/events are fetched using a second query.

The general structure of queries is as follows:

http://helioviewer.org/api/index.php?action=methodName&param1=value1&param2=value2...

The base URL is the same for each of the API methods (http://helioviewer.org/api/index.php). The "action" parameter is required for all requests and specifies the specific functionality to access. In addition, other parameters may also be required depending on the specific API being accessed. The one exception to this rule is the Custom View API which is accessed from http://www.helioviewer.org/index.php and does not require an "action" to be specified. Finally, the queries may be sent using either a GET or POST request. In both cases the result is a JSON object

Custom View API:

The custom view API enables the user to load a specific set of parameters into Helioviewer.org: "view," here, simply means a given set of observation parameters. This is useful for dynamically loading a specific view or observation into Helioviewer using a URL.

Usage:

http://helioviewer.org/index.php?

Supported Parameters:

date	ISO 8601 UTC Date	Date and time to display
imageScale	Float	Image scale in arc-seconds/pixel
imageLayers	2d List	A comma-separated list of the image layers to be displayed. Each image layer should be of the form: [OBSERVATORY, INSTRUMENT, DETECTOR, MEASUREMENT, VISIBLE, OPACITY].

Example: http://helioviewer.org/index.php?date=2011-06-01T00:00:00Z&imageScale=2.4204409&imageLayers=[SDO,AIA,AIA,171,1,100],[SOHO,LASCO,C2,white-light,1,100]

Screenshots

The Screenshot API provides a way for users to create custom single-layer and composite images using Helioviewer.org. Depending on how you plan to use the screenshot, the process can be handled in either one or two steps. In the simplest case, takeScreenshot is called with "display=true" and an image is returned directly. Alternatively, when the display parameter is not set to true in the request an identifier is returned which can then be used by the downloadScreenshot method to display the image. This is useful when you want to provide a reusable link to the image you create.

Creating a Screenshot

Returns a single image containing all layers/image types requested. If an image is not available for the date requested the closest available image is returned.

Usage:

http://helioviewer.org/api/index.php?action=takeScreenshot

Supported Parameters:

date	ISO 8601 UTC Date	Timestamp of the output image. The closest timestamp for each layer will be found if an exact match is not found.
imageScale	Float	The zoom scale of the image. Default scales that can be used are 0.6, 1.2, 2.4, and so on, increasing or decreasing by a factor of 2. The full-res scale of an AIA image is 0.6.
layers	String	A string of layer information in the following format: Each layer is comma-separated with these values: [sourceId,visible,opacity]. If you do not know the sourceId, you can alternately send this layer string: [obs,inst,det,meas,opacity]. Layer strings are separated by commas: [layer1],[layer2],[layer3].
y1	Integer	The offset of the image's top boundary from the center of the sun, in arcseconds. This can be calculated, if necessary, with pixel-to-arcsecond conversion.
x1	Integer	The offset of the image's left boundary from the center of the sun, in arcseconds. This can be calculated, if necessary, with pixel-to-arcsecond conversions.
y2	Integer	The offset of the image's bottom boundary from the center of the sun, in arcseconds. This can be calculated, if necessary, with pixel-to-arcsecond conversion.
x2	Integer	The offset of the image's right boundary from the center of the sun, in arcseconds. This can be calculated, if necessary, with pixel-to-arcsecond conversions.
display	Boolean	[Optional] If display is true, the screenshot will display on the page when it is ready. If display is false, the filepath to the screenshot will be returned. If display is not specified, it will default to true (Default=false).
watermark	Boolean	[Optional] Whether or not the include the timestamps and the Helioviewer.org logo in the screenshot (Default=true).

Examples: http://helioviewer.org/api/index.php?action=takeScreenshot&date=2011-03-01T12:12:12Z&imageScale=10.52&layers=[3,1,100],[4,1,100]&x1=-5000&y1=-5000&x2=5000&y2=5000&display=true
http://helioviewer.org/api/index.php?action=takeScreenshot&date=2011-03-01T12:12:12Z&imageScale=10.52&layers=[SOHO,EIT,EIT,171,1,100],[SOHO,LASCO,C2,white-light,1,100]&x1=-5000&y1=-5000&x2=5000&y2=5000

Retrieving an Existing Screenshot

Displays the screenshot associated with the specified id.

Usage:

http://helioviewer.org/api/index.php?action=downloadScreenshot

Supported Parameters:

int

The screenshot id as returned from takeScreenshot.

Example: http://helioviewer.org/api/index.php?action=takeScreenshot&id=181

Feature/Event API:

Solar feature/event data used by Helioviewer is retrieved through the Heliophysics Event Knowledgebase (HEK). While the HEK includes a very rich and full-featured API of it's own, Helioviewer provides only a few simple but useful feature/event query methods. Each of these types of queries are described below.

Event Feature Recognition Methods (FRM):

Each event stored in the HEK has an associated Feature Recognition Method or "FRM" which corresponds with the mechanism used to locate the event. This could be either an automated feature recognition method such as Computer Aided CME Tracking (CACTus) or a simple user-submitted event. To query the list of available FRMs, simply call the "getEventFRMs" API method and specify a startDate and endDate. This will return a list of the FRMs for which event data exists in the requested time range, as well as some meta-information describing each of the FRMs.

Usage:

http://helioviewer.org/api/index.php?action=getEventFRMs

Supported Parameters:

startDate	ISO 8601 UTC Date	Beginning of query window.
endDate	ISO 8601 UTC Date	End of query window.

Result:

The result includes a list of event types denoted by their two-letter acronym as listed at the HEK. Within each event type is a list of all FRMs for which events were found in the specified query window. Finally, for each FRM some basic information including the FRM name, id, url and contact information, along with the number of events matched are returned.

count	Integer	The number of events found for the associated FRM
frm_contact	String	[Optional]E-mail address or name associated with the FRM
frm_url	String	[Optional] The URL associated with the FRM

Example: http://helioviewer.org/api/index.php?action=getEventFRMs&startDate=2010-07-01T00:00:00.000Z&endDate=2010-07-02T00:00:00.000Z

Example Result:

        {
        "AR": {
            "NOAA SEC Observer": {
                "frm_url": "N/A",
                "frm_contact": "http://www.sec.noaa.gov/",
                "frm_identifier": "NOAA SEC",
                "count": 14
            }
        },
        "SS": {
            "EGSO_SFC": {
                "frm_url": "n/a",
                "frm_contact": "s.zharkov at sheffield dot ac dot uk",
                "frm_identifier": "EGSO_SFC",
                "count": 45
            }
        },
        "FL": {
            "SSW Latest Events": {
                "frm_url": "http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/solarsoft/packages/gevloc/idl/ssw_flare_locator.pro",
                "frm_contact": "Samuel L. Freeland",
                "frm_identifier": "SolarSoft",
                "count": 13
            },
            "SEC standard": {
                "frm_url": "http://www.sec.noaa.gov/",
                "frm_contact": "SEC.Webmaster@noaa.gov",
                "frm_identifier": "SEC",
                "count": 13
            },
            "TRACE observer": {
                "frm_url": "http://hea-www.harvard.edu/trace/flare_catalog/",
                "frm_contact": "trace_planner at lmsal dot com",
                "frm_identifier": "TRACE flare catalog",
                "count": 1
            }
        },
        "FA": {
            "Karel Schrijver": {
                "frm_url": "n/a",
                "frm_contact": "Karel Schrijver",
                "frm_identifier": "Karel Schrijver",
                "count": 4
            }
        }
        }

Fetching or Creating Event Screenshots

Returns a collection of filepaths to screenshots of an event. If no screenshot files exist yet, it will create one or more depending on parameters, or will return an empty array if getOnly is set to true.

Usage:

http://helioviewer.org/api/index.php?action=getScreenshotsForEvent

Supported Parameters:

eventId

String

The unique ID of the event, as obtained from querying HEK.

Examples: http://helioviewer.org/api/index.php?action=getScreenshotsForEvent&eventId=AR211_TomBerger_20100630_175443
http://helioviewer.org/api/index.php?action=getScreenshotsForEvent&eventId=AR211_TomBerger_20100630_175443

Fetching or Creating Event Movies

Returns a collection of filepaths to movies of an event. If no movie files exist yet, it will create one or more depending on parameters.

Usage:

http://helioviewer.org/api/index.php?action=getMoviesForEvent

Supported Parameters:

eventId	String	The unique ID of the event, as obtained from querying HEK.
ipod	Boolean	[Optional] Whether or not you are looking for the iPod-compatible movie or the regular movie. Defaults to false if not specified.

Examples: http://helioviewer.org/api/index.php?action=getMoviesForEvent&eventId=AR_SPoCA_20101007_085532_20100904T014848_1
http://helioviewer.org/api/index.php?action=getMoviesForEvent&eventId=AR211_TomBerger_20100630_175443&ipod=true

JPEG 2000 API:

Helioviewer's JPEG 2000 API's enable access to the raw JPEG 2000 images used to generate the tiles seen on the site, as well as real-time generation of JPEG 2000 Image Series (JPX).

JP2 Images:

Returns a single JPEG 2000 (JP2) image. If an image is not available for the date request the closest available image is returned.

Usage:

http://helioviewer.org/api/index.php?action=getJP2Image

Supported Parameters:

observatory	String	Observatory
instrument	String	Instrument
detector	String	Detector
measurement	String	Measurement
date	ISO 8601 UTC Date	Observation date and time
sourceId	Integer	[Optional] The image source ID (can be used in place of observatory, instrument, detector and measurement parameters).
jpip	Boolean	[Optional] Returns a JPIP URI instead of an actual image.

Examples: http://helioviewer.org/api/index.php?action=getJP2Image&observatory=SOHO&instrument=EIT&detector=EIT&measurement=171&date=2003-10-05T00:00:00Z
http://helioviewer.org/api/index.php?action=getJP2Image&observatory=SOHO&instrument=LASCO&detector=C2&measurement=white-light&date=2003-10-05T00:00:00Z&jpip=true

JPX API

Returns a JPEG 2000 Image Series (JPX) file. The movie frames are chosen by matching the closest image available at each step within the specified range of dates.

Usage:

http://helioviewer.org/api/index.php?action=getJPX

Supported Parameters:

observatory	String	Observatory
instrument	String	Instrument
detector	String	Detector
measurement	String	Measurement
startTime	ISO 8601 UTC Date	Movie start time
endTime	ISO 8601 UTC Date	Movie end time
cadence	Integer	[Optional] The desired amount of time between each movie-frame, in seconds. If no cadence is specified, the server will attempt to select an optimal cadence.
sourceId	Integer	[Optional] The image source ID (can be used in place of observatory, instrument, detector and measurement parameters).
verbose	Boolean	[Optional] In addition to the JPX file URI, timestamps for each frame in the resulting movie and any warning messages generated are included in a JSON response.
jpip	Boolean	[Optional] Returns a JPIP URI instead of an actual movie.
linked	Boolean	[Optional] Returns a linked JPX file containing image pointers instead of data for each individual frame in the series. Currently, only JPX image series support this feature.

Result:

The default action is to simply return the requested JPX file. If additional information is needed, for example, then a JSON result will be returned with the file URI plus any additional parameters requested.

uri	String	[Optional] Location of the requested file.
frames	List	[Optional] List of timestamps.
error	String	[Optional] Any fatal error messages generated during the request
warning	String	[Optional] Any non-fatal warning messages generated during the request

Examples: http://helioviewer.org/api/index.php?action=getJPX&observatory=SOHO&instrument=EIT&detector=EIT&measurement=171&startTime=2003-10-05T00:00:00Z&endTime=2003-10-20T00:00:00Z
http://helioviewer.org/api/index.php?action=getJPX&observatory=SOHO&instrument=MDI&detector=MDI&measurement=magnetogram&startTime=2003-10-05T00:00:00Z&endTime=2003-10-20T00:00:00Z&cadence=3600&linked=true&jpip=true

Notes:

If no cadence is specified Helioviewer.org attempts to choose an optimal cadence for the requested range and data source.

Movie API:

The movie API allows users to create time-lapse videos of what they are viewing on the website.

Movie API

Returns filepaths to a flash video and a high quality video consisting of 10-100 movie frames. The movie frames are chosen by matching the closest image available at each step within the specified range of dates, and are automatically generated using the Screenshot API calls.

Usage:

http://helioviewer.org/api/index.php?action=queueMovie

Supported Parameters:

startTime	ISO 8601 UTC Date	Desired starting timestamp of the movie. The timestamps for the subsequent frames are incremented by a certain timestep.
endTime	ISO 8601 UTC Date	Desired ending timestamp of the movie. Time step and number of frames will be figured out from the range between startTime and endTime.
imageScale	Float	The zoom scale of the images. Default scales that can be used are 0.6, 1.2, 2.4, and so on, increasing or decreasing by a factor of 2. The full-res scale of an AIA image is 0.6.
layers	String	A string of layer information in the following format: Each layer is comma-separated with these values: [sourceId,visible,opacity]. If you do not know the sourceId, you can alternately send this layer string: [obs,inst,det,meas,opacity]. Layer strings are separated by commas: [layer1],[layer2],[layer3].
y1	Integer	The offset of the image's top boundary from the center of the sun, in arcseconds. This can be calculated, if necessary, with pixel-to-arcsecond conversion.
x1	Integer	The offset of the image's left boundary from the center of the sun, in arcseconds. This can be calculated, if necessary, with pixel-to-arcsecond conversions.
y2	Integer	The offset of the image's bottom boundary from the center of the sun, in arcseconds. This can be calculated, if necessary, with pixel-to-arcsecond conversion.
x2	Integer	The offset of the image's right boundary from the center of the sun, in arcseconds. This can be calculated, if necessary, with pixel-to-arcsecond conversions.
numFrames	Integer	[Optional] The maximum number of frames that will be used during movie creation. You may have between 10 and 300 frames. The default value is 300.
frameRate	Integer	[Optional] The number of frames per second. The default value is 8.
display	Boolean	[Optional] If display is true, the movie will display on the page when it is ready. If display is false, the filepath to the movie's flash-format file will be returned as JSON. If display is not specified, it will default to true.
watermark	Boolean	[Optional] Enables turning watermarking on or off. If watermark is set to false, the images will not be watermarked, which will speed up movie generation time but you will have no timestamps on the movie. If left blank, it defaults to true and images will be watermarked.

Examples: http://helioviewer.org/api/index.php?action=queueMovie&startTime=2010-03-01T12:12:12Z&endTime=2010-03-04T12:12:12Z&imageScale=21.04&layers=[3,1,100],[4,1,100]&x1=-5000&y1=-5000&x2=5000&y2=5000
http://helioviewer.org/api/index.php?action=queueMovie&startTime=2010-03-01T12:12:12Z&endTime=2010-03-04T12:12:12Z&imageScale=21.04&layers=[SOHO,EIT,EIT,304,1,100],[SOHO,LASCO,C2,white-light,1,100]&x1=-5000&y1=-5000&x2=5000&y2=5000

Appendices:

Supported Identifiers

This appendice contains a list of the identifiers supported by Helioviewer. For some queries, complex identifiers may be built up from the simpler ones below. For example, to uniquely identify a specific type of image, you must specify a comma-separated set of four identifiers: Observatory, Instrument, Detector, and Measurement. For example, to refer to an EIT 171 image, the identifier SOHO,EIT,EIT,171 is used.

Observatories:

Identifier:	Description:
SDO	SDO (Solar Dynamics Observatory)
SOHO	SOHO (Solar and Heliospheric Observatory)
STEREO_A	STEREO_A (Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory Ahead)
STEREO_B	STEREO_B (Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory Behind)

Instruments:

Identifier:	Description:
AIA	AIA (Atmospheric Imaging Assembly)
EIT	EIT (Extreme ultraviolet Imaging Telescope)
HMI	HMI (Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager)
LASCO	LASCO (Large Angle and Spectrometric Coronagraph Experiment)
MDI	MDI (The Michelson Doppler Imager)
SECCHI	SECCHI (Sun Earth Connection Coronal and Heliospheric Investigation)

Detectors:

Identifier:	Description:
AIA	AIA (Atmospheric Imaging Assembly)
C2	LASCO C2
C3	LASCO C3
COR1	Coronagraph 1
COR2	Coronagraph 2
EIT	EIT (Extreme ultraviolet Imaging Telescope)
EUVI	EUVI (Extreme ultraviolet Imager)
HMI	HMI (Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager)
MDI	MDI (The Michelson Doppler Imager)

Measurements:

Identifier:	Description:
94	94 Ångström
131	131 Ångström
171	171 Ångström
193	193 Ångström
195	195 Ångström
211	211 Ångström
284	284 Ångström
304	304 Ångström
335	335 Ångström
1600	1600 Ångström
1700	1700 Ångström
4500	4500 Ångström
white-light	White-light
continuum	Intensity spectrogram
magnetogram	Magnetogram

Event Types:

Identifier:	Description:
CME	Coronal Mass Ejection
Solar Flare	Solar Flare
Type II Radio Burst	Type II Radio Burst
Active Region	Active Region
GeneralActivityReport	SOHO General Activity Report

Variable Types

This appendice contains a list of some of the variable types used by the Helioviewer API's.

Type:	Description:	Example:
Boolean	A boolean value.	true
Integer	An integer.	12
Float	A floating point number.	2.4
String	A string.	SOHO
List	A comma-separated list of some other type, usually strings or integers	VSOService::noaa, GOESXRayService::GOESXRay
2d List	This is similar to a list except that each item of the list is a bracket-delineated list itself.	[SOHO,EIT,EIT,171,1,100],[SOHO,LASCO,C2,white-light,0,100],[SOHO,MDI,MDI,continuum,1,50]
Unix Timestamp	The number of seconds since January 1, 1970, midnight UTC. (see [1])	1065512000 // October 7th 2003, 7:33:20 UTC
ISO 8601 UTC Date	ISO 8601 is a widely supported standarized date format. (See [2], [3])	2003-10-05T00:00:00Z // Note the "Z" at the end. This specifies that this is a UTC datetime

References:

[1] Epoch Converter - Unix Timestamp Converter
[2] ISO 8601 - Wikipedia
[3] Date and Time Formats - W3.org

Working with Coordinates in Helioviewer.org

Overview

Several of the API methods supported by Helioviewer.org require you to specify a rectangular region of interest or "ROI", which is simply the portion of the image or movie you are interested in.

There are two different methods for specifying region of interest (ROI) in Helioivewer.org API requests. The first method is to specify the coordinates for the top-left and bottom-right corners of the ROI in arcseconds. The other option is to specify the position of the center of your ROI in arcseconds and the dimensions for the ROI in pixels. In either case you will also need to specify an image scale in arcseconds per pixel. This appendix provides a description of how each of these methods can be used in API requests, and how to determine the appropriate arcsecond values to use to reach a desired effect.

Arcseconds

The first method for specifying an ROI in a Helioviewer.org API request is to specify the coordinates for the top-left (x1, y1) and bottom-right (x2, y2) corners of the ROI in arcseconds, with the origin at the center of the Sun. The below image depicts the location of the origin, and the direction of the axes, for this style request.

To makes things more clear, below are some example requests, and the imageScale and ROI corresponding with that request.

Examples:

1) A complete AIA image at 1/16 its natural resolution (zoomed out four times)

In this case the desired image scale is 2^4 x (natural scale) = 16 x 0.6 = 9.6. Now to determine the ROI coordinates, we must first determine how large the image will be at the specified scale. AIA is normally 4096x4096, so at 1/16 its natural resolution it will be 256x256 pixels. Since the origin is in the middle of the Sun (which here is in the middle of the Sun), there top-left corner is 128 pixels up and to the left (-128, -128), and the bottom-right corner is 128 pixels down and to the right (128, 128). Since the ROI must be specified in arcseconds, and not in pixels, we multiply by the desired imageScale: 128 x 9.6 = 1228.8.

URL: http://helioviewer.org/api/?action=takeScreenshot&date=2011-06-21T00:00:00.000Z&layers=[SDO,AIA,AIA,304,1,100]&imageScale=9.6&x1=-1228.8&y1=-1228.8&x2=1228.8&y2=1228.8&display=true

2) The top-right quadrant of an EIT image at 200% magnification

First, determine the desired image scale = 1 / 2^1 x (EIT native image scale) = 1/2 x 2.63 = 1.315. At this scale, the image which would normally be 1024x1024 pixels is now 2048x2048 pixels, and the coordinates for the ROI in pixels would is (0,-1024), (1024,0). To convert to arcseconds we multiple the pixel values by the arcsecond/pixel ratio (the imageScale) to get (0, -1346.56), (1346.56, 0).

URL: http://helioviewer.org/api/?action=takeScreenshot&date=2011-06-21T00:00:00.000Z&layers=[SOHO,EIT,EIT,171,1,100]&imageScale=1.315&x1=0&y1=-1346.56&x2=1346.56&y2=0&display=true

Finally, don't forget that you can use Helioviewer.org to check the coordinates and see if they are as you expect. Pressing the "m" key will return the position of the mouse pointer in Helioviewer.org viewport. Initially, the coordinates will be displayed in arcseconds. Note, however, that the y-axis value displayed for mouse-coordinates has the opposite sign to that passed in API requests. This is because the mouse position is returned in a coordinate system which is commonly used in solar physics. To get around this you can simply flip the sign for the y-coordinate you see on Helioviewer.org when mouse-coordinates are being displayed.

Pixels

Alternatively, if you prefer to explicityly specify the pixel dimensions for the image or movie, you can specify the center of your ROI in arc-seconds (x0, y0), relative to the center of the sun, and the width and height of the ROI in pixels. Although you are still required to work with Arcseconds for this method for some of the parameters, this provides a simple way to ensure that the resulting image or movie is a specific size in pixels.

Similar to the first method, you will also need to specify the image scale to use, in arcseconds/pixel.

Examples:

1) A complete EIT image at it's natural resolution

According to the table of image scales shown below, the native image scale for EIT is 2.63 arcseconds/pixel, and the image dimensions are 1024 x 1024 pixels.

URL: http://helioviewer.org/api/?action=takeScreenshot&date=2011-07-07T00:00:00.000Z&layers=[SOHO,EIT,EIT,171,1,100]&imageScale=2.63&x0=0&y0=0&width=1024&height=1024&display=true

2) A 1024 x 768 sub-region centered at the top-right corner of an AIA 131 image, centered at the top-right quadrant, and the natural scale of AIA.

Since we want to center the image in the top-right corner, we need to figure out what arcsecond coordinates correspond to the pixel coordinates (1024, -1024). At its native resolution, AIA images have an image scale of 0.6 arcseconds/pixel, so we multiple the pixel coordinates by this ratio to get the corresponding arcsecond values.

URL: http://helioviewer.org/api/?action=takeScreenshot&date=2011-07-07T00:00:00.000Z&layers=[SDO,AIA,AIA,131,1,100]&imageScale=0.6&x0=614.4&y0=-614.4&width=1024&height=768&display=true

Image Scale

When working with coordinates in Helioviewer.org, it is also important to understand the spatial scale of the images you are viewing and requesting. Each type of image (AIA, LASCO, etc) shows the Sun at some spatial scale or resolution. That is, each image pixel represents a certain number of arcseconds, and that ratio of arcseconds to pixels is refered to as the "image scale" for that image. Each of the different image types have their own native image scale, which is the number of arcseconds a pixel of the image represents when viewed at its native resolution. Below is a table listing the average native image scales and dimensions (in pixels) for images found on Helioviewer:

Image Type:	Dimensions (pixels)	Image Scale (arcseconds/pixel)
AIA	4096 x 4096	0.6
COR-1	512 x 512	15.0
COR-2	2048 x 2048	14.7
EIT	1024 x 1024	2.63
HMI	4096 x 4096	0.6
LASCO C2	1024 x 1024	11.9
LASCO C3	1024 x 1024	56
MDI	1024 x 1024	1.985707

Note: The values listed above are average values. Often, the image scale and dimensions for a given type of image tends to stay the same over time, and as such you can often use the above values as-is. Occasionally, however, the scale or dimensions will vary. If you find that you are getting unexpected results, or would like a higher level of precision, you should first use the getClosestImage method to determine the exact dimensions and scale for the image you are requesting.

The smaller the (native) image scale is, the more detail you can see. For example, AIA has a much smaller native image scale (0.6"/px) than EIT does (2.63"/px) which is why you can see a lot more detail in AIA images.

You are not limited to creating screenshots and movies at an image's native resolution, however, and so in an API request the imageScale specified need not (and in the case of composite images, often cannot) be the same as an images native resolution.

For example, suppose you wanted to request an AIA image that is "zoomed out" by a factor of two. In this case, you would double the imageScale, so instead of 0.6, you would request an image scale of 1.2. Simiarly, when making a request which includes multiple layers, each of the layers will be scaled to match the imageScale you requested.

Last Updated: 2011-07-06 | Questions?