ATNF Pulsar Data Access and Download

Overview

This page concerns getting access to, and downloading ATNF Pulsar data. For information on searching for ATNF data, see ATNF Pulsar Observation Search.

CSIRO’s Data Access Portal holds many terabytes of pulsar observations with new data being added at the end of every semester. The observations that are not currently in high demand are stored in a tape library and need to be requested for access.

Download data

There are three ways to download ATNF data. You can initiate the first two through the DAP search results page, once you have searched for and identified the data collections in which you are interested:

  1. as a TAR archive
  2. as a ZIP archive.
  3. Download all files via S3 client.

The Download all files via S3 client option is helpful if you want to download a collection with a large number of files.

File size constraints

The size of the files places some constraints on download options, but a workaround is available.

  1. You can’t use the TAR archive option for individual files larger than 8GB. If a collection includes a file or files larger than 8GB, they will not be included in the TAR archive collection download.
  2. Collections larger than 10GB cannot be downloaded as a Zip archive. That is, the total size of all files in the Zip must be less than 10GB.

The workaround for both of these constraints is to use the S3 download option instead. See below for information on all of these options.

Download from the DAP search results page, using TAR archive or ZIP archive

  1. Select the checkbox to the left of the collections you want to download
  2. Click “Download” on the right hand side of the page
  3. Select your preferred download, TAR archive or ZIP archive
  4. Click “request files”
  5. Check the Licence Agreement, Disclaimer, and Terms of Use checkbox.
  6. Click “Accept”

See Download as TAR Archive for more information.

See Download as Zip Archive for more information.

Download all files via S3 client

The process described below begins on the search results page

  1. On the search results page, click on the (blue) project code to open the collection you are interested in.
    1. In the image above, a red circle has been drawn around the project code.
    2. This will open the collection description page.
  2. Click on the Files tab at the top of the collection page.
  3. Click Download at the top of the page.
  4. Select Download all files using S3 client
  5. Check the Licence Agreement, Disclaimer, and Terms of Use checkbox.
  6. Click Accept.

Next see the instructions for Download Using S3 Compatible Software.