- 1EOX IT Services, Vienna, Austria
- 2University of Edinburgh, UK
The VirES service[1] has been developed to make Swarm products accessible to programmers and non-programmers alike. Web services provide robust access to both data and models, which are coupled to a graphical interface for easy exploration and visualisation, as well as Python tooling to support community-developed tools and processing options. VirES is also integrated with other data systems through adoption of the Heliophysics API (HAPI)[2].
The web client GUI provides both 3D visualisation and customisable 2D plotting, allowing data exploration without any programming required. On the other hand, ready-to-run Jupyter notebooks[3] provide the more intrepid explorer the opportunity to generate more bespoke analysis and visualisation. The notebooks are backed by a JupyterHub furnished with domain-relevant Python packages, which together lower the barrier to entry to programming. Both the web client and notebooks are interlinked with the Swarm handbook[4] which provides more detailed documentation of products.
While the service was originally developed to serve Swarm products, we also provide access to ground magnetic observatory data derived from INTERMAGNET, as well as Swarm "multimission" products derived from other spacecraft as part of Swarm projects. We are actively looking into ways in which the service and associated software can support related missions, including the Macau Science Satellites and NanoMagSat.
VirES is developed for ESA by EOX IT Services[5], in close collaboration with researchers across the Swarm Data, Innovation, and Science Cluster (DISC). We aim to produce a sustainable ecosystem of tools and services, which together support accessibility, interoperability, open science, and cloud-based processing. All services are available freely to all, and the software is developed openly on GitHub[6,7].
[1] https://vires.services
[2] https://hapi-server.org
[3] https://notebooks.vires.services
[4] https://swarmhandbook.earth.esa.int
[5] https://eox.at
[6] https://github.com/ESA-VirES
[7] https://github.com/Swarm-DISC
How to cite: Pačes, M. and Smith, A.: ESA's VirES service for accessing and analysing data from Swarm and beyond, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-20825, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-20825, 2025.
