Accessing MLSO data programmatically

The data available from the Mauna Loa Solar Observatory (MLSO) website for our currently operational instruments, UCoMP and KCor, is now available from a web service API. We will add data from older instruments in the future to make our complete data archive available through the API. We provide Python, IDL, and command-line clients for immediate use, though JSON responses from the GET requests can also be used.

The API allows users to discover the available instruments and their products, to find files matching search queries, and to download the matching files.

The API improves the ease of downloading files for multiple dates or for non-calendar date matching patterns, e.g., need one file of a particular type each day for a Carrington Rotation. The API can also be used in scripts to download the required data as needed.