[X] My Assistant

[Brian Swift]

Just curious, has anyone gone spelunking in the Magellan SAR EDR (raw) dataset?

https://pds-imaging.jpl.nasa.gov/data/magellan/edr/

Looks like a set of 9-track mag tapes were copied to CD-ROMs for preservation,
and at some point the CD files were put online in PDS.

In starting to look at it, I realized that lack of knowledge of
mag tape volume/label/file/record structure and terminology may impede
younger explorers of this dataset.

[Phil Stooke]

I have used the mosaicked (tiled) data, not the raw 'noodle' data (long strip from one orbit). But I completely agree that much better access is needed, beginning with a good map-based search tool. I haven't checked for quite a while, though. Must be 10 years since I worked on Venus. I used to think I could do an atlas of Mercury and Venus exploration and I made a good start, but a lifetime isn't long enough to do everything I want to do.

One thing I did notice: USGS's Map-a-planet, which I used to use all the time until it was revamped and made less convenient, had 3 global mosaics corresponding to radar image cycles 1, 2 and 3. One mosaic often helped fill a gap in another. But where a gap still remained, occasionally on those CD-ROMs a later version of a mosaic would include a bit of extra coverage and fill the gap. But searching for that magic tile was a real pain. That's where a fully updated dataset with good map search capabilities would really help - show all products within the selected box.


Phil

[mcaplinger]

I have used the mosaicked (tiled) data, not the raw 'noodle' data (long strip from one orbit).

The recollections of a recovering Magellan data processor: The noodle data came in two flavors: the really raw data that Brian is talking about, and the so-called F-BIDR (Full resolution basic image data record, https://pds-geosciences.wustl.edu/missions/...idr/dataset.cat -- map-projected noodles). Even during the mission, I didn't know anyone brave enough to look at the EDRs, and even using the F-BIDRs was considered pretty hard-core; not sure if going back to the EDR would really confer much benefit, but it would require a detailed knowledge of SAR processing.