STEREO Science Center (SSC) Image Search Tool and Movie Maker is a web resource that allows the user to select JPEG images from each of the STEREO SECCHI (Sun Earth Connection Coronal and Heliospheric Investigation) telescopes (EUVI, COR1, COR2, HI1, HI2). These are the same images that appear on the SSC Daily Browse Images pages. Images are produced initially from the low resolution real time space weather beacon data, and are available to the tool within minutes of the telemetry being received on the ground. The initial low resolution real time images are replaced with the full resolution versions once they are available, typically about three days later. Large gaps in time are filled in with beacon images if possible.

JPEG images are available at sizes ranging from 128x128 to 1024x1024 or 2048x2048, depending on the telescope. Running difference images at the same sizes are also created for the coronagraph telescopes at the following time differences: COR1: 20 minutes, COR2: 1 hour, and HI1: 2 hours. HI2 processed images are inherently running differences with a time difference of 2 hours.

Results can be returned in one of three formats, as a list of filenames, as the images themselves arranged vertically on the page, or as a Javascript slideshow (movie). The Javascript slideshow player loads the selected images into the user's browser, and displays them sequentially to form a movie. The user can control the speed of the movie, change the direction between forward and reverse, and select a swing mode which switches back and forth between forward and reverse. The movie can also be paused and stepped frame by frame. A subrange of frames within the movie can also be selected. For all three search formats--list, images, and slideshow--the user can download a zip file containing the JPEG images, and optionally text files which accompany each JPEG file which describes the contents.

The spacecraft and telescope to be searched is selected from a menu on the left. For all options except slideshow, it is possible to select multiple spacecraft/telescope combinations. The image resolution can also be selected. If the slideshow option is selected, the maximum resolution is 512x512, and larger values will be reduced to this limit automatically. One can also choose between normal images and running difference images--if the latter are not available, then normal images are returned instead. The time range to be searched can be entered in the format YYYYMMDD, e.g. 20161110 for November 10, 2016. If only a start date is entered, then the search range is one day. If no dates are entered, then today is searched. As an alternative, one can ask for the latest N images, but this can be slow. For searches covering a large time span, one can set a sampling parameter, e.g. "3" for every third image or "10" for every tenth image. One can also enter in "hour" for one per hour, or "day" for one image per day. There are limits on the number of images which can be returned, and the number of days that can be searched, though the latter is relaxed when the "day" option is used.