Strengthening Open Source Practices in Heliophysics

Open source software is a critical component of heliophysics software development. As NASA requires more open source software through its open source initiative, developers and scientists in heliophysics must learn how to manage and disseminate their own open source code effectively. Our poster will share our experiences as open source developers on the Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe (IMAP) science data center and on tools within the Python in Heliophysics Community (PyHC). IMAP code has been open source since day one and uses a wide variety of open source tools. We will highlight specific challenges encountered during open source development, share best practices and resources for creating open source software, and address common concerns about open source development. We will also discuss how we created, used, and built upon existing PyHC open source tools within IMAP - such as cdflib, SAMMI, and space-packet-parser. Through this work, we aim to strengthen open source development in heliophysics and advance collaboration via PyHC.