GDF documentation

GDF or Gyrotorpic Distribution Functions are a commonly used approximation for solar wind velocity distribution functions (VDFs). This repository uses Slepian basis function based reconstructions to recover distribution functions from Parker Solar Probe’s SPAN-Ai instrument. This repository is an extension of vdfit which was designed for reconstructing agyritropic MMS and Solar Orbiter VDFs to the PSP measurements.

Contents:

• Installation
  • Installing a local Python environment
  • Installing the gdf repository
  • Installing the Slepian packages (Matlab)
  • Building the repository structure and unit test
• Getting started
  • A example GDF reconstruction
  • Understanding the initialization file
• Description of basis functions
  • Radial knots for cubic B-splines
  • Polar-cap Slepians from localization coefficients
• Using 1D Slepians on polar caps
• Using 2D Slepians in a Cartesian plane