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QSAS:
Science Analysis Software for Space Plasmas
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QSAS end of branch version 2.4.16
Macintosh users will need to install QT 4.5 (or later, currently QT4.8 is stable and recommended).
This version is maintained
in order that older savesets (.qss directories) can be opened and
re-saved to convert to the xml savesets used by QSAS version 3.QSAS
is a software package which provides a flexible, extendable environment
for the selection, manipulation, and display of space physics data.
QSAS is written in C/C++ and is compiled using the gnu compiler set,
and makes use of several elements of third-party software, including Qt
(http://qt-project.org/downloads), cdf (http://cdf.gsfc.nasa.gov/) and PLplot (http://plplot.sourceforge.net/).
Currently available for Linux, Mac OSX and
Windows.
Finding out about
QSAS
- QSAS Help Pages
contains more detailed information about QSAS capabilities.
- QSAS Screen shots shows the
major functionality in use.
- Sample Session is a tar file of
a sample QSAS session to help get a feel of the system. This file is also
shipped with the distribution. If it is not available in your installation
(named SampleSession), extract the tar archive in the QSAS_HOME/tmp
directory and open from the QSAS 'File/Restore Session' menu.
- Some Notes on Writing QSAS
Plug-ins provides guidance for users with personal analysis
routines to enable them to receive data from and return data to QSAS via
the dynamic QSAS Plug-in Interface. Also available as a pdf file.
- Programmer's documentation provides information on the C++
class structures for QDOS and QSAS. This documentation is generated using
doxygen.
Other specifications can be found
within the various items supplied with QSAS.
Obtaining QSAS
Please email CSC
Support each time you download a qsas distribution, stating which
version, so that we can keep users informed of changes and monitor levels of
interest. QSAS is provided free under GPL public licence, see licence file.
Linux users
should download the source distribution that builds itself using a
build script. Edit the script to give the location of the QSAS
distribution after download and the target directory for installing QSAS
into along with QT, and CDF installations on your platform, then type
'./build qsas' in the bin directory of the distribution:
QSASlinux24.tar.gz
Mac OSX users should download the appropriate disk image.
These
require QT4.5 or later (currently QT4.8 is stable and recommended) to
be installed, and this is available as a universal binary from...
http://qt-project.org/downloads
Double click the
QT package and follow the installer instructions.
Launch QSAS on the Mac by double clicking on the QSAS icon /Applications/QSAS_2_4/QSAS
Windows users should download the following archive:
After
unzipping, a QSAS folder will be created. If
you place the QSAS directory in C:\Program Files, it is ready to use.
Otherwise, you must edit the QSAS/bin/QSAS.bat with a
text editor and adapt the path in the first line of the file.
Start QSAS by double-clicking QSAS.bat. You can also make shortcuts to
this launcher.
QSAS should run "out of the box" on 64 bit Windows.
More advanced users wishing to build their own or third party plugins or compile QSAS locally will
need to install Qt version 4.5 or higher (currently QT4.8 is recommended) together with msys (part
of the MinGW package) and NASA's CDF libraries, available from:
Authors
Qt
(http://qt-project.org/downloads), cdf (http://cdf.gsfc.nasa.gov/), MinGW (http://sourceforge.net/projects/mingw/)
Documentation
- QSAS Help Pages (html) and other documentation are included in all
distributions in the directory doc.
Sample Data Files
The QSAS distribution contains some example data from Cluster Summary parameters as well as a sample session.
As well as Cluster Exchange Format (.cef) and NASA Common Data Format
(.cdf) files, QSAS is able to read many ascii data files in either
tabular or delimited syntax. These ascii files will need headers (either
as detached (.qfh) headers or pasted onto the front of the data file
itself. To help with the construction of suitable headers, some samples
for different data sets are included with the distribution and are also
available below, and collectively as a gzipped tar file.
Plug-in Libraries
Plug-ins written by the QSAS team are distributed
with the QSAS tar files, and install automatically at QSAS installation.
Many of the ISSI plugins are also distributed with QSAS precompiled.
Other QSAS plug-ins are also
available from ISSI
and MPE
Providing Feedback
on QSAS
QSAS is built around the prototyping methodology, and
continual improvement and enhancement is central to its development. Some
enhancements will come via user-written modules which are incorporated via the
QSAS plugin interface. The development team welcomes comments, reports of
anomolous behaviour, and suggestions which should be sent to: csc-support-dl@imperial.ac.uk.
When submitting a report, please
try to be as complete and specific as possible. If reporting a bug it can prove
useful if you are able to identify a reproducable sequence of events and a
specific data set. The save and restore session facility in qsas 2 can assist
in providing feedback since save session directories can be tarred and emailed
(save files are platform, independent). The environment variable QSAS_DEBUG can
be set "ON" in the user's QSAS script. This prints progress information
to the terminal. Sending us the last few hundred lines of this output can also
assist in diagnosing problems.
Acknowledging QSAS
in Publications
The preferred wording for acknowledging use of QSAS
in publications is "Data analysis was done with the QSAS science analysis
system provided by the United Kingdom Cluster Science Centre (Imperial College
London and Queen Mary, University of London) supported by The Science and
Technology Facilities Council (STFC)" or similar wording as appropriate.
This software was written by the CSC Team at IC and
QMUL. The team members have included, in alphabetical order, Tony Allen
(A.Allen@ic.ac.uk), Stuart Bale, Janet Barnes, Nora Bounaira, David Burgess, Gareth Chisham, Markus Fraenz, Anthony Hare, James
Meakin, Alban Rochel, Steve Schwartz (S.Schwartz@ic.ac.uk)
and Abdeslam Serroukh. Current team members are shown with an email address.
Please address all comments to csc-support-dl.
QSAS is developed as part of the
Cluster Science Centre within the UK and funded by the Science and Technology
Facilities Council (STFC). The software is provided as is under the GPL public licence,
though QM and IC retain the copyright. No liability is accepted for any damage
resulting from the installation or use of this software, and no guarantee of
its suitability is implied for any use other than the scientific visualisation
and manipulation of Cluster science data. Copyright.
Last up-dated 22 April 2016
Send comments and suggestions to csc-support-dl@imperial.ac.uk
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