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PDS Geosciences Node Report

Ray Arvidson

PDS Management CouncilWashington, DC

April 3, 2008

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Geosciences Node Overview

Our purpose:

– To archive and distribute data related to the surfaces and interiors of the terrestrial planets

– To work with NASA missions to help them generate well-documented, permanent archives

– To help planetary scientists find and use data of interest, providing tools and expert advice

http://pds-geosciences.wustl.edu

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Geosciences Node Personnel

Name Role

Ray Arvidson Node Manager

Lars Arvidson System Administrator

Keith Bennett Tool Development (ODE), Mission Interface

Kate Crombie Archive Preparation (contractor, U. of Arizona)

Edward Guinness Mission Interface, Archive Operations

Dan Scholes Tool Development, Archive Operations

Susan Slavney Mission Interface, Archive Operations

Thomas Stein Mission Interface, Tool Development (AN), Archive Operations, System Architecture

Jue Wang Tool Development (geodesy and cartography)

Jennifer Ward Mission Interface, Archive Operations (at APL)

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Geosciences Node Missions Currently in Operations

2001 Mars Odyssey GRS gamma ray and neutron spectra and mapsRadio science

Mars Exploration Rovers Integrated suite of cameras, spectrometers, rock abrasion tool and engineering data

Mars Express (ESA)

MARSIS subsurface radarOMEGA multispectral imagesHRSC high-resolution stereoRadio science

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter CRISM hyper- and multi-spectral imagesSHARAD shallow radarRadio scienceSpectral library

MESSENGER (led by PPI Node)

X-ray spectraLaser altimetryRadio scienceGamma ray and neutron spectra

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Geosciences Node Missions In Development

Phoenix Lander, 2007 (5/25/2008 landing)

TEGA thermal and evolved gas sample analysisMECA atomic microscope, wet chemistry, thermal and electrical conductivity

Mars Science Laboratory, 2009

APXS alpha particle X-ray spectraDAN pulsed neutron source and detectorCheMin XRD/XRF dataChemCam laser-induced remote sensingSAM mass spec, gas chromatograph, tunable laser spectrometer

Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, 2008

LOLA altimetry and gravity dataLEND neutron spectraDiviner radiometry dataMini-RF synthetic aperture radar

LCROSS, 2008 Visible and NIR spectrometer dataTotal visible luminance photometerEarth-based observations

Chandrayaan-1 (ISRO), 2008

Mini-RF synthetic aperture radar

GRAIL, 2011 Gravity data

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Geosciences Node Data Holdings

Currently the Geosciences Node hosts approximately 9 TB of data in 150 data sets from 19 missions, along with data from Earth-based and laboratory experiments.

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User Support: The Orbital Data Explorer

• ODE is a web-based tool for searching, displaying, and downloading orbital data sets for Mars

– MRO CRISM, SHARAD, Radio Science, HiRISE, and CTX

– Mars Express HRSC and OMEGA

– Future additions: MGS MOLA, Odyssey GRS, others

• Lunar version in preparation for LRO and other orbital lunar data sets

• Available through the Geosciences Node MRO web pages, or directly at http://ode.rsl.wustl.edu/mars

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User Support: The Analyst’s Notebook

• The Analyst’s Notebook is a scientist’s window into the archives for a surface-based mission.

– Science data are integrated with planning and sequence information, engineering data, and documentation

– Enables “mission replay” to show exactly how, when and why data were acquired

• Currently available for Mars Exploration Rover archives

• Future versions planned for Phoenix, MSL and Apollo surface missions

• Available through the Geosciences Node MER web pages, or directly at http://anserver1.eprsl.wustl.edu/

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Metrics over past 12 months

Date Web page views

FTP files downloaded

Unique visitors

GB downloaded

Apr-07 26,833 419,137 8951 1138

May-07 27,725 61,816 6960 472

Jun-07 22,313 193,073 4286 326

Jul-07 27,315 277,195 4585 655

Aug-07  51,523 25,571 6288 322

Sep-07 278,030 233,813 6100 451

Oct-07 37,093 256,752 8247 479

Nov-07  669,477 22,113 7940 380

Dec-07 196,162 1,886 8222 123

Jan-08  187,669 24,915 10095 202

Feb-08 36,814 51,292 12965 216

Mar-08  165,088 56,705 21841 501

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International Activity

• IPDA (International Planetary Data Alliance) is working to set standards for sharing planetary archives among all national space agencies.

• Mars Express: – We provide archiving advice to the PSA and data providers.

– We maintain online copies of MEX archives for the convenience of U.S. users.

• Kaguya:– The Japanese lunar orbiter Kaguya has an agreement with LRO to share

altimetry data for planning purposes. Kaguya wanted to use PDS labels for this data, so we provided advice on label design.

• GRUNT:– GRUNT is a joint Russian-Chinese mission to Phobos with many international

participants (launch ~2011).

– We will be the PDS point of contact for advice on generating PDS-compatible archives.

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International Activity

• China:– Using Washington University funding, we established MOUs with Shandong

University, Weihei, to host a PDS-compatible data system (including Chang’E-1 lunar observations) and with the Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences, Beijing, for cooperation in lunar science and Earth-analog studies.

– The expectation is that we will establish working relationships with the Chinese planetary science community and encourage them to share their lunar data and to participate in archiving and planetary sciences on an international level.

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Issues

• We are concerned about the long-term stability of all PDS archives.– It is difficult to deliver archives to NSSDC and to retrieve them.

– Plans for offsite backups for disaster-recovery purposes are incomplete.

• More resources should be applied to gauging and improving “customer satisfaction”.

– User expectations of PDS have shifted from a purely archival function to a user service function.

– Users need help finding, understanding, and using PDS archives.

– We are responding by offering workshops (e.g., OMEGA/HRSC workshop at our node 5/21-23/08) and an increased presence at scientific meetings.

• Missions are not producing the higher derived products that most users need to do scientific analysis.