Some software is born to be sold and closed. Hector was born for the opposite: to be open, shared and improved by the community that uses it.
Hector is an open-source academic software package, made available to the research community. Researchers can use, study and build upon it, and that is not merely a licensing detail, it is a stance. The rigorous analysis of geophysical time series is a common good of science, and tools of this kind gain value when they circulate among those who need them.
Alongside this academic version, TeroMovigo provides commercial solutions based on Hector, including professional support, integration, and a maintained Python implementation designed to run on Windows and macOS.
Behind Hector is TeroMovigo, the main author of the software, responsible for its development and its maintenance. The aim is to provide continuous support to both the academic community and professional users. It is not a product that is handed over and abandoned; it is a tool that is maintained over time, as the science and its applications evolve.
That seriousness shows in the rigour with which Hector positions itself in its field. The methodology behind it is documented in the book Geodetic Time Series Analysis in Earth Sciences, and the software engages openly with existing alternatives. There are other programs for similar tasks, such as CATS and est_noise, and comparisons between Hector and est_noise have shown consistent results between the two. Users of Hector in scientific publications are invited to cite the reference by Bos, Fernandes, Williams and Bastos (2013) on the fast error analysis of continuous GNSS observations with missing data.
It is from this DNA that TeroMovigo makes its signature: serious science, placed in practical hands, maintained responsibly and shared with the community. Hector is not just a computation tool. It shows that advanced geoscientific knowledge can be both rigorous and openly available, while supporting professional use where reliability, support and integration are essential.