planetMagFields: A Python package for analyzing and plotting planetary magnetic field data

Abstract

Long term observations and space missions have generated a wealth of data on the magnetic fields of the Earth and other solar system planets. planetMagfields is a Python package designed to have all the planetary magnetic field data currently available in one place and to provide an easy interface to access the data. planetMagfields focuses on planetary bodies that generate their own magnetic field, namely Mercury, Earth, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Ganymede. planetMagfields provides functions to compute as well as plot the magnetic field on the planetary surface or at a distance above or under the surface. It also provides functions to filter out the field to large or small scales as well as to produce .vts files to visualize the field in 3D using Paraview, VisIt or similar rendering software. Lastly, the planetMagfields repository also provides a Jupyter notebook for easy interactive visualizations.