What’s New in sunpy 4.1?#

The SunPy project is pleased to announce the 4.1 release of the sunpy core package.

On this page, you can read about some of the big changes in this release.

sunpy 4.1 also includes a large number of smaller improvements and bug fixes, which are described in the Full Changelog.

This release of sunpy contains 1408 commits in 191 merged pull requests closing 86 issues from 28 people, 18 of which are first-time contributors.

  • 1408 commits have been added since 4.0

  • 86 issues have been closed since 4.0

  • 191 pull requests have been merged since 4.0

  • 28 people have contributed since 4.0

  • 18 of which are new contributors

The people who have contributed to the code for this release are:

  • Akash Verma *

  • Alasdair Wilson

  • Albert Y. Shih

  • Alex Kaszynski *

  • Alex W *

  • Andy Tang *

  • Chris Bard *

  • Conor MacBride

  • Daniel Garcia Briseno *

  • David Stansby

  • Jan Gieseler *

  • Jia Qing *

  • Karthikeyan Singaravelan *

  • Krish Agrawal *

  • Laura Hayes

  • Lazar Zivadinovic

  • Marius Giger *

  • Matt Wentzel-Long *

  • Nabil Freij

  • Naveen Srinivasan *

  • Stuart Mumford

  • Timo Laitinen *

  • Will Barnes

  • William Jamieson *

  • William Russell *

  • tal66 *

Where a * indicates that this release contains their first contribution to sunpy.

Extracting map values along coordinate paths#

It is now easy to extract data values from a GenericMap along a curve specified by set of coordinates using the new sunpy.map.extract_along_coord function. This is done by applying Bresenham’s line algorithm between the consecutive coordinates, in pixel space, and then indexing the data array of the map at those points.

Easier reprojecting to Carrington and Stonyhurst coordinates#

sunpy.map.header_helper has a new make_heliographic_header() function that simplifies creating map headers that span the whole solar surface in Carrington or Stonyhurst coordinates. When used in combination with sunpy.map.GenericMap.reproject_to() this greatly simplifies reprojecting helioprojective maps into heliographic full-Sun maps.

Creating Carrington Maps

Creating Carrington Maps

Drawing the solar equator and prime meridian#

The new sunpy.visualization.drawing module can be used to draw the solar equator and prime meridian (zero Carrington longitude) on a plot with Astropy WCS Axes.

Plotting the solar equator and prime meridian

Plotting the solar equator and prime meridian

Sample data downloaded on demand#

The sample data files provided through sunpy.data.sample are now downloaded individually on demand rather than being all downloaded upon import of that module. All the sample data files can still be downloaded at once by calling sunpy.data.sample.download_all().

sunpy.database deprecation#

The sunpy.database module is no longer actively maintained and has a number of outstanding issues. It is anticipated that sunpy.database will be formally deprecated in sunpy 5.0 and removed in sunpy 6.0. If you are using sunpy.database and would like to see a replacement, please join the discussion thread at https://community.openastronomy.org/t/deprecating-sunpy-database/495.

sunpy.visualization.limb moved#

sunpy.visualization.limb.draw_limb has been moved into the sunpy.visualization.drawing module and renamed sunpy.visualization.drawing.limb(). The sunpy.visualization.limb module will remain working, but is deprecated and will be removed in version 5.1.

HelioviewerClient deprecated#

The Helioviewer Project now maintains a Python Wrapper called hvpy. As such, in consultation with the Helioviewer Project, the sunpy.net.helioviewer module is deprecated and will be removed in sunpy 5.1.

Changes to timeseries plotting#

To make plotting a timeseries as source-independent as possible, a number of source-specific plot customisations in peek() and plot() methods have been removed. See the changelog for full details on what has changed.

To harmonize different peek() and plot() signatures, all non-keyword arguments to these methods are deprecated. To avoid a warning pass all arguments with keywords (e.g. plot(title='my plot title')) instead.

Updated data downloader dependency#

The package that handles downloading data from remote sources, parfive, has had a recent major release to version 2.0. This new version comes with major usability improvements: removal of incomplete files and major error reporting upgrades.

sunpy users are encouraged to upgrade parfive to benefit from these improvements. To upgrade you can use pip:

$ pip install -U parfive

or conda:

$ conda update parfive