MASER (Measuring Analyzing & Simulating Emissions in Radio
frequencies), a Toolbox for Low Frequency Radio Astronomy
Abstract
The MASER (Measuring, Analysing and Simulating Radio Emissions) project
provides a comprehensive infrastructure dedicated to low frequency radio
emissions (typically < 50 to 100 MHz). The four main radio
sources observed in this frequency are the Earth, the Sun, Jupiter and
Saturn. They are observed either from ground (down to 10 MHz) or from
space (down to a few kHz). Ground observatories are more sensitive than
space observatories and capture high resolution data streams (up to a
few TB per day for modern instruments). Conversely, space-borne
instruments can observe below the ionospheric cut-off (10 MHz) and can
be placed closer to the studied object. Several tools have been
developed in the last decade for sharing space physcis data. Data
visualization tools developed by the CDPP (http://cdpp.eu, Centre de
Données de la Physique des Plasmas, in Toulouse, France) and the
University of Iowa (Autoplot, http://autoplot.org) are available to
display and analyse space physics time series and spectrograms. A
planetary radio emission simulation software is developed in LESIA
(ExPRES: Exoplanetary and Planetary Radio Emission Simulator). The VESPA
(Virtual European Solar and Planetary Access) provides a search
interface that allows to discover data of interest for scientific users,
and is based on IVOA standards (astronomical International Virtual
Observatory Alliance). The University of Iowa also develops Das2server
that allows to distribute data with adjustable temporal resolution.
MASER is making use of all these tools and standards to distribute
datasets from space and ground radio instruments available from the
Observatoire de Paris, the Station de Radioastronomie de Nançay and the
CDPP deep archive. These datasets include Cassini/RPWS, STEREO/Waves,
WIND/Waves, Ulysses/URAP, ISEE3/SBH, Voyager/PRA, Nançay Decameter Array
(Routine, NewRoutine, JunoN), RadioJove archive, swedish Viking mission,
Interball/POLRAD… MASER also includes a Python software library
for reading raw data. This work is supported by CDPP, CNES, PADC and
Europlanet-2020-RI. The Europlanet 2020 Research Infrastructure project
has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and
innovation programme under grant agreement No 654208.