Description:

Description

This talk will go over SunPy, a powerful library for solar data analysis. The talk will start by introducing the SunPy project as a whole, situating it within the broader _'Python in Astronomy'_ ecosystem and showcasing live demonstrations of acquiring and visualizing solar data. Then we'll also explore SunPy as an example of how it fits into the principles of open science and broader efforts in the community like OpenAstronomy and PyOpenSci, emphasizing the benefits and importance of open-source software in advancing scientific research and collaboration. I'll briefly go over how development and collaboration looks like at the project to familiarize audience with how community-driven Open-Source projects work and what's it like contributing to one and how they can get started. I'll conclude the talk summarising the key takeaways and promoting Scientific-Python contributions from the audience.

Talk Outline

Introduction

• The SunPy project
• The motivation and goals behind it
• SunPy affiliate projects

The Python in Astronomy Ecosystem

• Overview of Python's role in modern astronomy
• Key libraries and tools in the ecosystem (e.g., Astropy, Stingray)
• How SunPy fits into and enhances this ecosystem

Demonstrations

• Acquiring Solar Data with SunPy: Will involve using sunpy to retrieve solar data from public archives, explaining the data sources and formats
• Demo 2: Plotting a Solar Map with SunPy: Visualizing solar data using SunPy's mapping tools, customizing the plots and interpreting the visualizations

SunPy from the lens of an Open Science and an Open-Source Software

• What Open-Science is, why it's important and how open-source software is essential to it.
• How the SunPy community is organised, encouraging contributions and community involvement.

Conclusion

• Recap of SunPy's impact on space science
• The broader implications of open science and open-source software
• How to get involved with SunPy and contribute to open science
• Encouragement to explore Python's potential in scientific research
• Q&A

Takeaways

• The audience will have a better idea of just how diverse python's use-cases are. The research-inclined members would learn about how Python can be used in Space research.
• The audience will appreciate how important community run scientific open-source tools are for Open-Science and just how much of a success Scientific Python is.
• The audience will have a better understanding of how such open-source python packages, scientific or otherwise, are run and be motivated to contribute.

Prerequisites:

This talk is intended for anyone interested in the intersection of astronomy (but more generally any science) and programming. No prior experience with solar data or astronomy is required, but a basic understanding of Python will be beneficial.

Video URL:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Kvn8bIMAu1_FNa4CudzAEcFgKH8Pt2XT

Speaker Info:

Akshit Tyagi is an undergraduate student at JIIT Noida and a Software Engineer at Soul Systems LLC, working with databases and Python backends. He has been involved with Open-Source projects in the PyData space for more than a year now both as a Google Summer of Code student and otherwise. Aside from redesigning the base scraper for the dataretriever clients in SunPy, enhancing its capabilities for solar data analysis, Akshit has been involved in various such contributions using them as a means to pursue his interests in Scientific programming.

With a passion for the open-source software and the PyData ecosystem, he spends his free time contributing to OSS projects and volunteering at OSS and/or Python communities like OSDC, PyDelhi, FOSS United and PyCon India! He loves to share his experiences back with the community and hopes to encourage and learn from others who resonate similarly.

Speaker Links:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/akshit-tyagi-7407b4177/
• GitHub: https://github.com/exitflynn
• Relevant Open-Source Contributions: https://github.com/sunpy/sunpy/pulls?q=is%3Apr+author%3Aexitflynn
• Blog: https://exitflynn.github.io/blog/
• Twitter: https://x.com/flynnzler/