Help with downloading data

Data files for individual days should download fine by clicking on the link in your browser. Bulk downloads (e.g. a whole year at a time, or even a whole mission) are a little more involved. Unfortunately we cannot provide multi-day zip files or extensive tech support, but here are a few tools to make it easier.

Download managers

There are several programs designed to work with a web browser for large and multi-file downloads. A Google search for "download manager" will find many options. As always, use caution when installing software from the Web. We don't endorse (much less guarantee!) any particular program, but we've had good luck with DownThemAll for Firefox (you will need to download one directory at a time).

rsync

All data directories on this server are also available via anonymous rsync. This tool makes it very easy to keep a local copy of the data synchronized with this server. It is easiest to use on a Unix machine, but is also available for Windows (try cwrsync.

• Browse through this site and find the directory for the data you want. The top of the page will say something like "Index of /data/SPACECRAFT/INSTRUMENT/". You can browse down to whatever level of data you'd like...if you only need one year, click into the directory, no need to download the whole thing.
• Check the address bar of your browser; it should be something like http://spacedata.bu.edu/data/SPACECRAFT/INSTRUMENT/
• From a command line (Unix shell; Windows cmd window) in the directory where you want the data, execute:
  rsync -av spacedata.bu.edu::data/SPACECRAFT/INSTRUMENT .
  Note that the trailing dot is very important, as is excluding the / after INSTRUMENT. (And, of course, replace SPACECRAFT/INSTRUMENT with the actual directory desired.)

wget

wget is a free command-line utility (available for Windows or on most Unix machines) to transfer many files from a web server.

• Browse through this site and find the directory for the data you want. The top of the page will say something like "Index of /data/SPACECRAFT/INSTRUMENT/". You can browse down to whatever level of data you'd like...if you only need one year, click into the directory, no need to download the whole thing.
• Check the address bar of your browser; it should be something like http://spacedata.bu.edu/data/SPACECRAFT/INSTRUMENT/
• From a command line (Unix shell; Windows cmd window) in the directory where you want the data, execute (replacing the address with the one you found above):
  wget --recursive --no-parent http://spacedata.bu.edu/data/SPACECRAFT/INSTRUMENT
• In addition to the data, several files with names like index.html?C=D;O=A will be downloaded...these can safely be deleted.

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