flarepred

Repository for the Early Large Solar flare Alert (ELSA) and ANother Near-realtime Alert (ANNA) systems that were used in the April 2024 FOXSI-4 and HI-C lauches.

ELSA and ANNA will be used in the Winter 2025/2026 FOXSI-5 launch!

To Set-up

1. Download the repository

Either

• Download the flarepred repository manually (<> Code>>Download ZIP) and place in a directory of your choice; or
• navigate to that directory on your machine in the command line and use git clone https://github.com/pet00184/flarepred.git.

You now have the flarepred package.

2. Python virtual environment

To avoid polluting your base python environemnt let's create a virtual Python environment to work in.

1. Conda _{^{[recommended]}}

   We can create the environment with Conda/Miniconda where we can just type conda create -n flarepred-env python=3.11.3 pip in the command line.

   • Now we can activate the environment with conda activate flarepred-env; and
   • deactivate with conda deactivate.

   (See here for information on installing miniconda.)

2. PIP

   Another way is just to use PIP directly to create the virtual environment; however, more set-up is needed.

   First, ensure Python 3.11 is installed on your machine. A way to do this is with Homebrew via

   • brew install python@3.11

   It should then be possible to create a virtual environment with with this specific version of Python using

   • python3.11 -m venv flarepred-env

   After this, in the Mac/Unix terminal, the environment

   • can be activated with source env/bin/activate or, if the correct paths aren't set-up, source .../env/bin/activate; and
   • can be deactivated with deactivate.

   where ... here represents the location of the virtual environment. (See here for more information on working with Python environments set-up this way.)

   You may need to find where the virtual environment is saved. I had to search for the environment but depending how paths are set-up it may be obvious. In this example, the environment will be in a folder called flarepred-env somewhere.

3. Installing flarepred requirements

Make sure you are in the flarepred directory and have the activated the virtual environment, type pip install -r requirements.txt. This install all the required packages used in flarepred.

Now, as long as you are in your virtual environment, you can use the methods in flarepred without issue while in any directory

To Run

1. Launching the ELSA and ANNA windows

Before launching ELSA and ANNA, perform a git stash (in case you have data from previous runs) and git pull, to make sure that your trigger conditions are up to date.

1. To run ELSA, which is the main GUI that includes the flare trigger, run the following:

   This window is the main window we will be using for the flare campaign, which includes actionable plots that directly relate to the trigger.

   There are four ways you can run the ELSA window, which is of interest for the FOXSI-5 campaign due to EVE data downloads occasionally struggling:

   1. Traditional trigger, with EVE data:

      • python .../flarepred/RealTime/ELSA_window.py

   2. High risk high reward trigger, with EVE data:

      • python .../flarepred/RealTime/ELSA_window.py test_trigger

   3. Traditional trigger, with NO EVE data (if EVE is unavailable or slowing down the GUI):

      • python .../flarepred/RealTime/ELSA_window.py goes_only

   4. High risk high reward trigger, with NO EVE data:

      • python .../flarepred/RealTime/ELSA_window.py test_trigger_goes_only

2. To run ELSA's complimentary GUI (named ANNA), run the following:

   • python3 .../flarepred/RealTime/ANNA_window.py

   This window includes complimentary plots that are not essential to the trigger, such as EOVSA data, EVE 30nm data, and running differences of XRSB and EVE.

See the RealTime module for a more detailed description on ELSA and ANNA.

4. At the end

You will have data saved in the Session_Summaries folder when running ELSA. This includes .csv files for all the downloaded GOES and EVE data, as well as a .txt file with a summary of any triggers/cancellations/launches. If running ANNA, you will have .csv files for all downloaded GOES and EVE data used for ANNA in Session_Summaries_ANNA. During Trial Runs, please remember to upload this data when finished!

Remember to deactivate the Python virtual environment or just close the terminal being worked in, by doing conda deactivate.

Updating

If your local code needs updated because of a change on Github then git pull (or git pull origin main) should work.

If local changes have been made to the code that are not tracked or consistent with the newer version on Guthub then perform the following:

• If you require the local changes to be saved somewhere before resetting, make sure to do the following, otherwise proceed to reset your local branch

  • git commit -a -m "local branch work"
  • git branch local-work

• To force your local coode to be what is on Github then

  • git fetch origin
  • git reset --hard origin/main.

CHANGES FROM 2024 TRIAL RUNS

There is no longer a hold option that incurs a 30-minute deadtime in ELSA This option was meant for trial runs, but we don't want the GUI out of comission if we decide to hold in the actual campaign. Now, there is a "Not Launching" button that may be pressed, that moves ELSA back into the searching state. If the trigger condition is met again, you will need to continuously press this button (or just wait until you reach the gradual phase of whatever flare you are choosing to ignore.)