Trying to download frames from Solar Dynamics Observatory
Dean, Kevin,
I am at https://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/data/aiahmi/# and wondering what the data looks like. It says “Browser, Movie, Frames” but those are not formats, those are types. A frame format might be PNG, FITS, SER or some other lossless format.
You can make your URL for your names to be MailTo:dean_dot_pesnell@nasa_dot_gov so that it can be copied by right click, copy link address. In the link title, the strings are not accessible for copy easily. Then people have to eyeball transcribe or inspect the page source. If you (NASA.gov) are having problems with spam use of email addresses, I think there are better ways to track people down, than to inconvenience EVERY potential visitor. Block on spammer, and inconvenience a million good visitors??
But that is not why I am writing. My problem, walking through as a new visitor, is not knowing what will happen next and how much data there is.
I selected 2021-08-01 and it automatically filled in 2021-08-05. On the internet these numerical date format are deprecated because in different countries the order of month and day varies, so that 08-01 can mean two thing.
But that is not why I am writing. I don’t know if I put 2021-08-01 and 2021-08-01 I will get one day worth of images, and what that will be. So I got some frames as a video in the browser but I don’t know how many frames. Not horrible to not know, just ambiguous.
I changed to “Frames Download” and it changed my 1024×1024 to 512×512 without asking. And warns me “Ther is a total limit of 500 imags per query” but it does not tell me how many images I am likely to get with the query. So I guess I have to blindly try things until I get one that works. It also put back 2021-08-05 even though I set it to 2021-08-01 trying to get ONE DAY.
So with 2021-08-01 and 2021-08-05 (it refuses to let me change to one day) AIA 171 (gold), Frames Download, 1024×1024, nth image empty, it gives this error message:
[APPLICATION ERROR] Caught exception: SQLSTATE[22001]: String data, right truncated: 1406 Data too long for column ‘ip’ at row 1
I tried 2021-08-01 to 2021-08-02 and get the same error message for Frames Download, and when I go back, it has reset the end date again to 2021-08-05.
Since it put 512×512 in the box, maybe that will work. So I try the 2021-08-01 and 2021-08-05 again, same error.
I reloaded the page, selected Frames Download, let it put 512×512, and put 10 in the nth image box. same error.
I reloaded the page, set it for the 2021-08-26 to 2-21-08-27, Frames download, 512×512, empty nth. same error.
I think Frames download is broken.
But that is not why I am writing. It is because, even if it worked, you did not tell me how much data is involved if I make ANY selection. It is a courtesy for the Internet – tell people what is going to happen if they make the selection they have chosen. For downloads and sharing data of any type, people (or their computers on their behalf) need to know what is going to happen next.
Thank you.
Richard Collins, Director, The Internet Foundation
I changed to Movie download, selected 2021-08-01, left the end date empty, it set 1024×1024 without me asking. There was an error with your end date. I made it 2021-08-02
[APPLICATION ERROR] Caught exception: SQLSTATE[22001]: String data, right truncated: 1406 Data too long for column ‘ip’ at row 1
So I think Movie Download is not working either. I tried 2021-08-26 to 2021-08-27 just in case. NOPE. Same error.
