Difference between arrays in Python and IDL

This is evident when I display a HMI image, and the image is transposed when comparing it on IDL and Python.

Python:

• arrays are 0 index based
• access columns using axis = 0
• access rows using axis = 1

A fits file read into Python follows this format:

(z-dimension, rows, columns) or (t, y, x)

IDL

• arrays are 0 index based

A fits file created and read into IDL follows this format:

(column, row, z-dimension) or (x, y, t)

Solution

When reading in a fits file to Python, use

array = array.transpose(1,2,0)

to match IDL notation and get (x,y,t) ordering.