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Learn how to search for and retrieve JWST engineering data

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Data from thousands of monitors on JWST are collected and stored in an Engineering Database as timeseries, and are identified by mnemonics as described in the article on Engineering Data. This article describes how to access those data through the Engineering Data Portal.

On this page...

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Engineering DB Portal

The Engineering Database (EDB) Portal, which is a web application for searching, visualizing, and retrieving engineering data, is illustrated in Figure Fig. 1.

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JWST Engineering Database Portal

Figure 1 — The JWST EDB Portal as it appears prior to a query, with menus for entering mnemonics of interest (upper left) and time ranges (lower left). Results of successful queries are displayed as rows in a table (right), with options for plotting and downloading the timeseries.

Navigating to the EDB Portal

There are two ways to access the  EDB Portal user interface:

  • Execute a search for JWST data from the MAST Discovery Portal:
    • After a successful search with the Portal, click the orange ' EDB ' icon Image Added in the Actions menu (see Fig. 2) to inspect to bring up the EDB Portal; this will enable you to search for engineering data for that observation. The EDB Portal will be pre-populated with the Date Range corresponding to the exposure duration of the science data.
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Example portal search, with an arrow pointing towards the EDB iconImage RemovedImage Added

Figure 2 — The orange EDB link, seen here in the search results

in

Actions menu of the MAST Discovery Portal, will take users to the EDB Portal with the start/stop search range pre-populated from the associated Observation.

Search for Engineering Mnemonics

Engineering data are stored in the database as timeseries, and are identified by mnemonics; see the article on Engineering Data for details. There are a few means to execute a search; the options are described below.

Tip

It is possible to download a timeseries time-series for multiple mnemonics programmatically using an API. See the tutorial JWST EDB Retrieval.

Construct and Execute a Query


InstructionNotes
1Navigate your browser to the JWST Engineering Database Portal. You can also use a link from the search Portal for an individual observation.

Image Added

Method A: Dialog Boxes


InstructionNotes
2a

Enter an engineering mnemonic name into the Mnemonic Search  dialog box on the upper-left. The mnemonic names will auto-complete as you type. Here are some example mnemonics:

  • SA_ZATTEST1 through 4: These are the parameters for the quaternion
  • SA_ZRFGS2J11 through 33: These define the J-Frame
  • SA_ZHGAUPST: this provides the status of the High-Gain Antenna (e.g., MOVING, FINISHED)
Tip

You may search for multiple mnemonics, and multiple date ranges, in a single query.

Mnemonic search dialog box with an example enteredImage Modified

3a

Using the sliders or the dialog boxes, select a date range that is applicable to the mnemonic. Then click the Add Date Range button. You may search over multiple time ranges at once.

Note: The initial range of available values in the Start Time filter will be pre-populated if you navigated to the EDB interface by clicking the EDB icon in the Portal results grid of a prior search.

Date range silderImage Modified

4Click the Run Query link at the bottom-left of the Portal window.

Run query buttonImage Modified

Method B: Upload a Mnemonic List


InstructionNotes
2b

Click Upload Mnemonic List button at the bottom of the search window. Then click the Browse button to to enter the name of a .csv file containing a comma-separated list of mnemonic names.

Note: the names must be in upper-case.

Upload mnemonic list portal

3bFollow instruction 3a to add a date range.


4Click the Run Query link at the bottom-left of the Portal.

Run query buttonImage Modified

Method C: Upload a Query List


InstructionNotes
2c

Click Upload Query List button at the bottom of the search window. Then click the Browse button to to enter the name of a .csv file containing row tuples. Each tuple must include a mnemonic name, and an initial and final date-time.

Note: the format of the date-times must be compatible with Microsoft Excel date formats. This format includes two ISO-8601 variants:

2022-06-11 17:28:19

2022-06-11T17:28:19

The search will commence once the query list is uploaded successfully.

Upload query list portal

Visualize Engineering Data

The results of a successful query will look something like this;

Successful EDB query

Note: The results grid by default also shows the mnemonic search panels to the left of the list view, which was collapsed in the above graphic.

Tip
titlePlot Range

The extracted engineering data cover a time range that is slightly larger than the Date Range interval specified in the search. This is to ensure that the data timeseries is not truncated by rounding in the date-time extraction.

Warning
titleTime Sampling

The time sampling may be different for different mnemonics: some are sampled regularly and continuously, others are sampled when there is a change. This will require some care when comparing or correlating data from different mnemonics during analysis.


InstructionNotes
5

Click the box for a mnemonic in the results grid, then click the plot icon to view an interactive plot.

Note: Not all mnenomics data can be plotted, such as binary changes in state. The plot icon will not appear in these cases.

EDB plot iconImage Modified


The plot will look something like this:

Example engineering data plotImage Removed

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Retrieve Engineering Data

Engineering data will be delivered to the user as a set of one or more CSV files, one per mnemonic, containing time stamps (in MJD) and telemetry values.


InstructionNotes
6aClick the file icon above the rows to retrieve the time-ordered data for all matched mnemonics, in csv format. Use the pop-up window to save the file to disk.

File iconImage Modified

7aClick the Save File button in the pop-up window. The location where the file will appear on your system depends upon your browser settings.

Save file pop-up window

6bClick the checkbox at the beginning of one or more rows. Then click the file icon at the top right of the List View.

File iconImage Modified

7b

Select an option in the Format pull-down menu, then click the Download button. The options are:

  • zip, tar, or tar.gz for streaming retrieval through your browser
  • Curl to download a script to retrieve the files at a later time

Download file window

Warning
titleVery Large Files

Direct (streaming) download of very large files may fail silently. Select the Curl script download option to retrieve the file(s) in these cases.

For Further Reading...