[meteorite-list] Planetary Data System Releases MESSENGER Data from Third Mercury Solar Day

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Fri, 8 Mar 2013 12:48:26 -0800 (PST)
Message-ID: <201303082048.r28KmQiQ021991_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=236
        
MESSENGER Mission News
March 8, 2013
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Planetary Data System Releases MESSENGER Data from Third Mercury Solar Day

The Planetary Data System (PDS), which archives and distributes data
from all of NASA's planetary missions, today released data collected
during MESSENGER's thirteenth through eighteenth month in orbit around
Mercury. With this release, images and measurements are now available to
the public for the third full Mercury solar day of MESSENGER orbital
operations.

NASA requires that all of its planetary missions archive data in the
PDS, which makes available well-documented, peer-reviewed data to the
research community. This ninth delivery of MESSENGER measurements
includes raw and calibrated data from all seven of the mission's science
instruments, plus radio science data from the spacecraft
telecommunications system, from March 25 to September 17, 2012.

The team has also provided, for the first time in this release, advanced
products created with data collected through March 25, 2012,
encompassing the first two full Mercury solar days of MESSENGER orbital
operations. Those products include the first global mosaics of Mercury
to be delivered to PDS.

"The two advanced image products in this release are an eight-color map
and a higher-resolution monochrome map," says Mercury Dual Imaging
System (MDIS) Instrument Scientist Nancy Chabot, of the Johns Hopkins
University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL). "They are both the products
of thousands of images mosaicked together to reveal Mercury's global
geology and color characteristics. These mosaics required considerable
effort by many on the MESSENGER team, and we are all very proud to make
these global maps available."

Other advanced products include summed gamma-ray spectra and
background-subtracted, geolocated neutron counts from the Gamma-Ray and
Neutron Spectrometer; time-averaged magnetic field data from the
Magnetometer; altimeter profiles, radiometry, and a northern hemisphere
digital elevation map produced with data from the Mercury Laser
Altimeter (MLA); limb tangent height and surface reflectance spectra
from the Mercury Atmospheric and Surface Composition Spectrometer;
pitch-angle and measured-flux distributions and energy spectra from the
Energetic Particle and Plasma Spectrometer; and occultation data and
spherical harmonic gravity and shape models derived from the radio
science investigation and the MLA.

"Many in the public have been eagerly awaiting the release of the
MESSENGER advanced products, and the MESSENGER team is excited to be
able to provide them," says APL's Susan Ensor, MESSENGER's Science
Operations Center lead. "Extra analyses and processing are required to
generate these products, which in many cases combine data over time and
include maps, topography, and other global data. The team has also
worked closely with the PDS in planning and documenting these new
products to ensure their long-term usefulness to the science community."

"Mercury is a planet of many mysteries," adds MESSENGER Principal
Investigator Sean Solomon, of Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth
Observatory. "With each increment of data, we have made discoveries that
raised new questions. Finding answers to those questions requires
further analysis. We hope that this latest release of MESSENGER data
will induce more of our colleagues from the broader planetary science
community to help us unravel the many stories that Mercury has yet to tell."

The MESSENGER mission's ACT-REACT-QuickMap software, developed by
Applied Coherent Technology Corporation, allows users to examine global
mosaics constructed with high-resolution images from this and previous
PDS deliveries. The tool also provides weekly updates of coverage for
surface-observing instruments, as well as the status of specially
targeted MDIS observations. Future enhancements to QuickMap will include
simple data fusion, by which data sets from multiple elements of the
payload may be combined.

QuickMap can be accessed via links on the MESSENGER websites at
http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/ and http://www.nasa.gov/messenger. The MDIS
mosaics can be downloaded from
http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/the_mission/mosaics.html.

The data for this release are available online at
http://pds.nasa.gov/subscription_service/SS-20130308.html, and all of
the MESSENGER data archived at the PDS thus far are available at
http://pds.nasa.gov. The team will submit two more data deliveries to
PDS at six-month intervals from MESSENGER's extended mission.
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MESSENGER (MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and
Ranging) is a NASA-sponsored scientific investigation of the planet
Mercury and the first space mission designed to orbit the planet closest
to the Sun. The MESSENGER spacecraft launched on August 3, 2004, and
after flybys of Earth, Venus, and Mercury will start a yearlong study of
its target planet in March 2011. Dr. Sean C. Solomon, of the Carnegie
Institution of Washington, leads the mission as Principal Investigator.
The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory built and operates
the MESSENGER spacecraft and manages this Discovery-class mission for NASA.
Received on Fri 08 Mar 2013 03:48:26 PM PST