Cassini image database & updates, And notifications of PDS data releases Options

[Bjorn Jonsson]

I have noticed that the January 1, 2007 Cassini PDS release is already available, see http://pds-imaging.jpl.nasa.gov/data/cassi...assini_orbiter/

I haven't downloaded all of the imaging data and I'm just beginning to digest what I already have but there are some beautiful images of Enceladus' plumes and satellite mutual events, images of the G and D rings and interesting images of Saturn's nightside and fairly good Iapetus images.

Radar and VIMS is also available.

All in all a nice 'Christmas gift' .

[Bjorn Jonsson]

A few comments:

This is a Microsoft Access database containing two tables, coiss and coiss_revised. Coiss simply combines all of the index.tab files on the Cassini ISS volumes 1001-1009 and 2001-2023 into a single database without any significant modifications, except for the rejection of erroneously formatted numbers (see the list of errors at the end of this message).

The coiss_revised table contains updated values for a few fields. These values are *probably* slightly more accurate (from my experience when doing a cylindrical map of Saturn) than the original values although I cannot completely guarantee this. They are computed from the latest SPICE kernels (CK and SPK). The NORTH_AZIMUTH value is also included as there's no equivalent field in the coiss table. At this time only a few images are included in coiss_revised. I don't know the exact geometric meaning of north_azimuth_clock_angle in the index.tab files but it is totally different from north_azimuth so I added north_azimuth in a separate table. However, I have only determined it for a few images (70 - mostly the ones I used to do a map of Saturn) but plan to do so for all of the images, possibly before the next batch of images gets released 3 months from now.

There are a few simple queries there as well that I decided to include as a simple example of what can be done.

I use this database extensively when searching for interesting and/or specific images, both from within Access and directly from programs I have written. I rarely use the PDS to search for images, I mainly use it to download entire data volumes.

As previously mentioned I found errors in some of the index.tab files. The errors I know of are:

coiss_2017: There are erroneously formatted floating point numbers in rows 1253-1257 in index.tab, columns 2541-2551 (SUB_SPACECRAFT_LATITUDE). I tried 'guessing' the correct values. These are images N1512191594_1.IMG, N1512191728_1.IMG, W1512191728_1.IMG, N1512191860_1.IMG and N1512191993_1.IMG.

coiss_2020: There are erroneously formatted floating point numbers in rows 170-171 in index.tab, columns 2628-2638 (TARGET_SOUTHERNMOST_LATITUDE). I fixed this manually - the fixed values are a guess and the correct value to use is uncertain. These are images N1517273822_1.IMG and N1517273855_1.IMG.

coiss_2021: There are erroneously formatted floating point numbers in rows 1980-1990 and 2648-2649 in index.tab, columns 2541-2551 (SUB_SPACECRAFT_LATITUDE). I fixed this manually - the fixed values are a guess and the correct value to use is uncertain. These are images W1520869299_1.IMG, N1520869388_1.IMG, W1520869388_1.IMG, N1520869616_1.IMG, W1520869616_1.IMG, N1520869705_1.IMG, W1520869705_1.IMG, N1520869934_1.IMG, W1520869934_1.IMG, N1520870023_6.IMG, W1520870023_1.IMG, W1521409807_1.IMG and N1521409944_1.IMG.

coiss_2023: There are erroneously formatted floating point numbers in rows 2785-2788 in index.tab, columns 2616-2626 (TARGET_NORTHERNMOST_LATITUDE). As previously I fixed this by trying to guess the correct values. These are images N1530372696_1.IMG, N1530372841_1.IMG, N1530372986_1.IMG and N1530373131_1.IMG.

There might be more errors.