How data is retrieved from the SOAR

To retrieve data from SOAR, you first use the sunpy.net.Fido object from sunpy and specify the desired attributes using sunpy.net.attrs. These attributes define the criteria for the data you want to retrieve, such as the time range, instrument, or wavelength.

Here is an example of how to specify the time range for the data you want to retrieve:

import sunpy.net.attrs as a
from sunpy.net import Fido
import sunpy_soar

instrument = a.Instrument("EUI")
time = a.Time("2021-02-01", "2021-02-02")
level = a.Level(1)
product = a.soar.Product("EUI-FSI174-IMAGE")

result = Fido.search(instrument & time & level & product)

sunpy-soar constructs the query based on the specified criteria, then generates a URL to interact with the SOAR API. This is done by using the Table Access Protocol (TAP), a widely adopted standard in the astronomical community for accessing large datasets. The queries are formulated in Astronomical Data Query Language (ADQL), which allows for flexible querying of astronomical data. The results are returned in the form of an Astropy table, providing a structured and efficient format for further analysis and visualization within the Python environment.

A generated query looks like:

SELECT * FROM v_sc_data_item WHERE instrument='EPD' AND begin_time>='2021-02-01 00:00:00' AND begin_time<='2021-02-02 00:00:00' AND level='L1' AND descriptor='epd-epthet2-nom-close'

Or with a JOIN

SELECT h1.instrument, h1.descriptor, h1.level, h1.begin_time, h1.end_time, h1.data_item_id, h1.filesize, h1.filename, h1.soop_name, h2.detector, h2.wavelength, h2.dimension_index
FROM v_sc_data_item AS h1 JOIN v_eui_sc_fits AS h2 USING (data_item_oid) WHERE h1.instrument='EUI' AND h1.begin_time>='2021-02-01 00:00:00' AND h1.begin_time<='2021-02-02 00:00:00' AND
h2.dimension_index='1' AND h1.level='L1' AND h1.descriptor='eui-fsi174-image'

The URL is generated with the query formed based on the parameters, then Fido is used to search and download the data.