Downloads and Installation

Which distribution should I download?

If you already have IDL installed and licensed, the "Source Code" distribution is the best choice. It is the only way to obtain full access to the complete set of command line utilities; the "Save File" and "Executable File" releases only operate via the GUI, but they can be used without having to pay for an IDL license.

For the most common platforms (64-bit Windows, 64-bit MacOs, 64-bit Linux), we have built standalone executables (with the IDL Virtual Machine environment included), using two different IDL versions. The IDL 7.1 builds will generally produce better-looking plots with the default settings, because IDL 8.0 and above calculate font sizes in a slightly different, non-backward-compatible way. However, IDL 8.3 has some optimizations that improve memory and CPU performance compared to IDL 7.1.

For Linux, we also offer a choice of which GEOPACK library is bundled with the executable files. We recommend Geopack 9.3 if your system supports it; however, it requires a relatively recent version (2.14 or later) of the glibc library. For older systems, we also offer Linux builds with GEOPACK 7.6, which has a reduced feature set, but is more backward compatible.

The GEOPACK code is distributed with permission of Dr. Haje Korth, who developed the IDL interface to the original FORTRAN library by N.A. Tsyganenko. For more information, please visit http://ampere.jhuapl.edu/code/idl_geopack.html or email haje.korth@jhuapl.edu .

For other platforms (for example, Solaris, or anything 32-bit), we offer a "Save File only" release, but without bundling it with the IDL Virtual Machine Runtime. You will need to register at exelvis.com and download the full IDL runtime for them; this download will include the IDL Virtual Machine software which can be used to run SPEDAS without needing to purchase an IDL license. As with the "Executable file" distribution, this distribution only works with the GUI, and the command line features are not available.

Version 1.00, August 2014

1. Source code. This is a zip file with all the SPEDAS IDL source code. To use it you need to have IDL installed. This is the only distribution that provides full access to the command line tools. If you have used TDAS in the past, this is probably the option you should use.

* Download SPEDAS 1.00 source code (13 MB)

2. Save file. This is suitable for users without an IDL license. It requires the IDL Virtual Machine (VM) which has to be downloaded for free from Exelis. There are limitations using the VM compared to the full IDL. This distribution only provides access to the GUI, and not the command line tools.

* Download the SPEDAS 1.00 savefile (14 MB)

3. Executable files. These zip files contain executable files that can be run directly without installing anything else. They include a Virtual Machine (VM) version of IDL and they open the SPEDAS GUI but they do not include a command line tool, nor the SPEDAS IDL source code. They also include Geopack.

   IDL 8.3
       * Download SPEDAS 1.0 Executable, Windows 64bit, IDL 8.3, Geopack 9.3 (52 MB)
       * Download SPEDAS 1.0 Executable, MacOs 64bit, IDL 8.3, Geopack 9.3 (60 MB)
       * Download SPEDAS 1.0 Executable, Linux 64bit, IDL 8.3, Geopack 9.3 (70 MB)
       * Download SPEDAS 1.0 Executable, Linux 64bit, IDL 8.3, Geopack 7.6 (70 MB)

   IDL 7.1
       * Download SPEDAS 1.0 Executable, Windows 64bit, IDL 7.1, Geopack 9.3 (34 MB)
       * Download SPEDAS 1.0 Executable, MacOs 64bit, IDL 7.1, Geopack 9.3 (48 MB)
       * Download SPEDAS 1.0 Executable, Linux 64bit, IDL 7.1, Geopack 9.3 (53 MB)
       * Download SPEDAS 1.0 Executable, Linux 64bit, IDL 7.1, Geopack 7.6 (53 MB)