# What are the sunpy HEK sources?

**URL:** <https://community.openastronomy.org/t/what-are-the-sunpy-hek-sources/1213>\
**Category:** SunPy\
**Tags:** sunpy, question\
**Created:** [March 4, 2025, 7:49am UTC](https://community.openastronomy.org/t/what-are-the-sunpy-hek-sources/1213 "2025-03-04T07:49:08Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![TheNovusCoder](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/user_avatar/community.openastronomy.org/thenovuscoder/32/565_2.png) [@TheNovusCoder](https://community.openastronomy.org/u/TheNovusCoder)\
**Post date:** [March 4, 2025, 7:49am UTC](https://community.openastronomy.org/t/what-are-the-sunpy-hek-sources/1213/1 "2025-03-04T07:49:08Z")

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Hi. I am curious on what is/are the instrument/instruments (Ex: RHESSI or GOES or SDO or STIX) used to find the flare start, peak and end times for the sunpy HEK . I tried looking into the sunpy documentation but couldn’t find a precise answer. All I got was this, “Entries are generated both by automated algorithms and human observers”. Please help me out.

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**Author:** ![ayshih](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/user_avatar/community.openastronomy.org/ayshih/32/84_2.png) [@ayshih](https://community.openastronomy.org/u/ayshih)\
**Post date:** [March 4, 2025, 2:38pm UTC](https://community.openastronomy.org/t/what-are-the-sunpy-hek-sources/1213/2 "2025-03-04T14:38:30Z")

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The Heliophysics Events Knowledgebase (HEK) contains entries generated from many different sources. For example, in [this section of the tutorial](https://docs.sunpy.org/en/stable/tutorial/acquiring_data/hek.html#the-result) for querying HEK using `sunpy`, you can see that there are least four different sources of flare (`FL`) events for that HEK query. The same flare can show up multiple times in an HEK query as different sources use their own criteria for identifying/classifying a flare.

In other words, the definition of flare start/peak/end for a given `FL` event entry depends on the source of that entry. `FL` events coming from the GOES event list use the GOES definitions of flare start/peak/end. `FL` events generated by the AIA flare detective use their own definitions. And so on.

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**Author:** ![nabobalis](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/user_avatar/community.openastronomy.org/nabobalis/32/14_2.png) [@nabobalis](https://community.openastronomy.org/u/nabobalis)\
**Post date:** [March 4, 2025, 10:10pm UTC](https://community.openastronomy.org/t/what-are-the-sunpy-hek-sources/1213/3 "2025-03-04T22:10:10Z")

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Also, the sunpy HEK is just a frontend to the data that the Heliophysics Events Knowledgebase (HEK) provides. sunpy does not validate this data, nor can sunpy tell you the sources or how its worked out outside of whatever the HEK returns.

That information is either on the HEK website: [https://www.lmsal.com/hek/](https://www.lmsal.com/hek/) or its only known to people who work on the HEK which can be emailed at: [hek\_support@lmsal.com](mailto:hek_support@lmsal.com)

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**Author:** ![TheNovusCoder](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/user_avatar/community.openastronomy.org/thenovuscoder/32/565_2.png) [@TheNovusCoder](https://community.openastronomy.org/u/TheNovusCoder)\
**Post date:** [April 10, 2025, 3:01pm UTC](https://community.openastronomy.org/t/what-are-the-sunpy-hek-sources/1213/4 "2025-04-10T15:01:04Z")

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Thank you for the replies ayshih and nabobalis. It’s very helpful.