GLOW

The GLobal airglOW Model, independently and easily accessed from Fortran 2003 compiler. Optionally available from Python ≥ 3.7.

A Fortran compiler is REQUIRED.

Note: This version uses meson and ninja as the build system, and does not rely on distutils, and is Python 3.12 compatible.

Installation

Note: For macOS Big Sur and above, add the following line to your environment script (~/.zshrc if using ZSH, or the relevant shell init script):

export LIBRARY_PATH="$LIBRARY_PATH:/Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/SDKs/MacOSX.sdk/usr/lib"

Then reopen the terminal. This fixes the issue where -lSystem fails for gfortran. Additionally, installation of gfortran using homebrew is required.

Direct installation using pip:

$ pip install glowpython

Install from source repository by:

$ git clone https://github.com/sunipkm/glowpython
$ cd glowpython && pip install .

Requires (and installs) geomagdata for timezone aware geomagnetic parameter retrieval.

Then use examples such as:

• Examples/Maxwellian.py: Maxwellian precipitation, specify Q (flux) and E0 (characteristic energy).
• Examples/NoPrecipitation.py: No precipitating electrons.

These examples are also available on the command line: GlowMaxwellian and GlowNoPrecip.

Or, use GLOW in your own Python program by:

import glowpython as glow

iono = glow.maxwellian(time, glat, glon, Nbins, Q, Echar)

iono is a xarray.Dataset containing outputs from GLOW, including:

• number densities of neutrals, ions and electrons
• Pedersen and Hall currents
• volume emission rate vs. wavelength and altitude
• precipitating flux vs. energy
• production and loss rates
• solar flux and wavelength ranges
• electron energy deposition

All available keys carry unit and description.