vlf4ions.class_definition

Created on Tue Apr 22 14:10:40 2025

@author: pteysseyre

Functions

sliding_median(arr, window)

Classes

email_alerts(subject, body, sender, ...[, ...])	Alerts sent in case of flare detection, antenna problems or such
receiver(name, lat, lon[, threshold, ...])	Characteristics of the receiver (for plotting purposes mainly and for sending alerts)
station(name, lat, lon, freq, ...[, Cal_NS, ...])	Characteristics of the transmitter.

class vlf4ions.class_definition.receiver(name, lat, lon, threshold=0.5, nb_error=0, file_endings=['_100A', '_100B', '_101A', '_101B'])

Bases: object

Characteristics of the receiver (for plotting purposes mainly and for sending alerts)

Parameters:

• name – Name of the receiver. Must match the name in the VLF data file names

• lat – Latitude of the receiver (for plotting)

• lon – Longitude of the receiver (for plotting)

• threshold – Amplitude threshold bellow which we declare a station not transmitting (default: 0.5)

• nb_errors – Number of reading errors, we keep track of them to alert in case of malfunction

• file_endings – List of strings found at the end of the data files. Default (for AWESOME): [“_100A”, “_100B”, “_101A”, “_101B”]

class vlf4ions.class_definition.email_alerts(subject, body, sender, password, recipients, threshold=0, files=[], sent_last_time=0, send_each_change=False)

Bases: object

Alerts sent in case of flare detection, antenna problems or such

Parameters:

• subject – Subject of the email alert

• body – Body of the email alert

• sender – Email adress of the sender

• password – Password of the email address of the sender

• recipiends – Recipients of the email alert (must be a list of strings)

• threshold – Flux threshold. If the probability of the flux being above this threshold is 10% or more, the alert will be sent (default: 0)

• files – List of files to include as attachment (default: empty)

• send_last_time – Computed internally; used to keep track of alerts already sent to avoid spamming people

• send_each_change – Boolean. If true, the recipients will receive an alert each time the flux estimation changes, as long as there is at least a 10% probability of the flux being above the threshold

update_detection_body(callsign, p1)

Just updates the body of the email with the relevant informations in case of flare detection

get_path_to_fluxestimate(path)

Get the path to the file used by the ‘craft_newsletter’ function bellow

Parameters:

path – Path to the flux estimate recap

Returns:

filename, full name and path of the file with the flux estimations

craft_newsletter(filename, completenamegiven=False)

Craft a newsletter based on the recapitulative file indicated by `filename’. It should include the highest flux estimated, its time, and each time the estimated flux was above M2 (with start, end time and peak times).

Parameters:

• filename – Path to the recapitulative file created with the ‘write_fluxestimate’ function. It can be found by calling the ‘get_path_to_fileestimate’ method just before

• completenamegiven – Boolean (default: False). If it is false, it assumes that the filename given is the path to the folder, and that the true filename must be computed (because it depends on the date)

Returns:

• max_flux: List of peak fluxes for each flare detected during the day

• max_times: List of each time of peak flux previously returned

• starts: Start times of each detected flare (quiet < 1)

• ends: End times of each detected flare (quiet == 1)

send_email()

Sends the email from the sender email adress to the recipients

class vlf4ions.class_definition.station(name, lat, lon, freq, detection_threshold, reading_time, Cal_NS=0.14, Cal_EW=0.08, df=0, time_average=60, delta=0.1, nb_data_points=0, nb_error=0, Ne=100000000.0, DP=0, DA=0, p1=0, quiet=1, flag=0, mu=-6, sigma=1, orientation=2, sza=0, sza_threshold=85, last_time_problem=-1)

Bases: object

Characteristics of the transmitter.

Parameters:

• name – call-sign (e.g. ‘GVT’)

• lat – latitude of the transmitter

• lon – latitude of the transmitter

• freq – Frequency (kHz)

• detection_threshold – Phase slope above which we detect a solar flare

• reading_time – second after the minute at which we read the data. NOTE: They should be unique for each station

• time_average – Time resolution of the smoothed signal (default: 60 s)

• delta – Delta parameter of the incremental algorithm (Guralnik & Srivastava, 1999. Default:0.1)

• nb_data_points – number of data points last time the file was read (default : 0, used for flagging)

• Ne – Average electron density computed in the path (not done yet, but I needed this for data analysis)

• DA/DP – Computed internally, variations of the amplitude and phase compared to quiet times

• mu/sigma – This is computed internally, and is the average and std of the flux probability density function given DA and DP

• orientation – Is 1 if the phase considered is E/W, 0 if it is N/S. The idea is that the phase can be much noisier in one direction, so the optimal orientation is left as a choice for the user. If it is set to 2, the polarisation start phase is used to combine both orientations. (Default:2)

• sza – Solar zenith angle (in °) at the middle of the path. Updated in the code automatically

• sza_threshold – Solar zenith angle threshold below which it is daytime (Default: 85°)

Re-written under current format in April 2025

update_df(this_receiver, path_to_data, epsilon=5, nb_days=30)

Updates the value of df for the station, as it depends on the transmitter and may vary in time

Parameters:

• receiver – Receiver class instance

• path_to_data – Path to the data files

• epsilon – Maximum phase jump (in °) that we allow on average (default: 5)

• nb_days – Number of days on which we want to compute df (default: 30)

update_breakpoints(path_breakpoint, path_mau, path_sunrise, alerts_antenna, alerts_detection, this_receiver)

Checks the phase and detects perturbations due to flares. If needed, send alerts to users

Parameters:

• path_breakpoint – path to the files where the breakpoints are stores

• path_mau – path to the data being written

• path_sunrise – path to the files with precomputed sunrise and sunset times

• alerts_antenna – instance of ‘alert’ class, alert to send if the antenna is down

• alerts_detection – instance of ‘alert’ class, alert to send if there is a detection

• this_receiver – Receiver class instance

get_pdf_coeff(path_to_probas)

Returns the mu and sigma coefficients, defining a gaussian probabiility distribution function associated to a station and a value of DP

Parameters:

path_to_probas – path to the files containing the mu and sigma values for the porbability computations

compute_DA_DP(path_breakpoint, la_date, amp, phase, this_receiver)

This function computes the values of DA and DP. Before this was only done in case of a new breakpoint, but that actually should be done as soon as quiet==0

Parameters:

• path_breakpoint – Path to the breakpoint file

• la_date – Date, in the ‘yyyy_mm_dd’ format

• amp – Median amplitude over the last minute (given by flag.flags)

• phase – Phase array

• this_receiver – Receiver class instance