HamSCI Researchers Published in SoftwareX

[Gary Mikitin, AF8A]

Congratulations are in order for two groups of HamSCI researchers and their co-authors, for their recent publications in the journal SoftwareX.

K. Collins, M. Hartinger, K. Zimmerman, M. Salzano, A. Burrell (December, 2025):

conjugate_map: A Python package for calculating geomagnetic conjugate points
The authors present conjugate_map, a Python library for flexible geomagnetic coordinate conversions that was designed to facilitate interhemispheric comparisons of geospace events and deployment of polar geospace instruments.  Their tool can be used to calculate geomagnetic conjugates, points in the northern and southern hemispheres linked by Earth’s magnetic field, including both points connected by closed magnetic field lines and points in open-field line regions that are in similar magnetic domains.  As the fifth International Polar Year approaches in 2032–33, this work will help researchers to incorporate interhemispheric geospace investigations into the instrument planning process.  (Full paper at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.softx.2025.102354)

S. Chakraborty, T. Bullett, A. Barjatya, J. Mabie (March, 2026)

pynasonde: An open-source Python library for ionosonde data processing
This paper presents pynasonde, an open-source Python application for ionospheric radio observations from MF/HF sounders, such as Digisonde and Vertical Incidence Pulsed Ionosphere Radar (VIPIR). Tailored for space weather, it integrates tools for reading, plotting, echo recognition, noise discrimination, and trace classification. By transforming raw datasets from vertical sounders into geophysical parameters, pynasonde v1.0.0 delivers reliable insights into ionospheric state and dynamics. This paper presents pynasonde’s modular, extensible design, which lowers the barrier to precision ionospheric analysis, supporting applications in space weather forecasting, radio communication, and ionospheric research, and concludes with plans for future extensions to this open source software. (Full paper at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.softx.2026.102617)