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

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Fri, 6 Sep 2013 12:42:36 -0700 (PDT)
Message-ID: <201309061942.r86JgacO017930_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=243

MESSENGER Mission News
September 6, 2013

Planetary Data System Releases MESSENGER Data from Fourth Mercury Solar Day

Data collected during MESSENGER's 19th through 24th month in orbit
around Mercury were released to the public today by the Planetary Data
System (PDS), an organization that archives and distributes all of
NASA's planetary mission data. With this release, data are now available
to the public through the fourth full Mercury solar day of MESSENGER
orbital operations.

This 10th delivery to PDS makes available the formatted raw and
calibrated data for MESSENGER's science instruments and the radio
science investigation. SPICE data from MESSENGER's 2004 launch through
the period of this release are also included.

The availability of the new data comes on the heels of some highly
anticipated upgrades to the MESSENGER mission's ACT-REACT-QuickMap
software developed by Applied Coherent Technology Corporation. The
software package allows users to examine global mosaics of Mercury
constructed with high-resolution images from this and previous PDS
deliveries. The Mercury Laser Altimeter (MLA) northern-hemisphere
topographic map is now available at a higher resolution.

"Topography is important for understanding the volcanic and tectonic
history of Mercury and, owing to fortunate geometry, the polar thermal
environment and the emplacement of volatile ices as well," explains MLA
Instrument Scientist Gregory Neumann, of the NASA Goddard Space Flight
Center. "We have sharpened the picture of the north polar region
considerably. The laser can corroborate the exciting results of the
imaging campaign and see into the shadows. But we are still wrestling
with the shape of Mercury, which is unusual among slowly rotating
terrestrial bodies. These updates to the slowly accumulating topographic
map will lead to further collaborations with other instrument teams and
should reveal new surprises."

QuickMap now also provides a complete image mosaic, new elevation
profiling and interactive three-dimensional viewing tools, and tools for
viewing spectra from the Mercury Atmospheric and Surface Composition
Spectrometer (MASCS) and the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS).

"QuickMap's spectra retriever now allows users to find on the surface an
individual footprint of the MASCS instrument," explains MASCS Instrument
Scientist Noam Izenberg of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics
Laboratory. "Each of these footprints varies in size and shape and
contains an individual spectrum of the light reflected off the surface
at wavelengths from 300 to 1,450 nanometers. The differences between
these spectra from one place to another help to reveal differences in
the composition of surface material on Mercury."

Brian Grigsby, the coordinator of MESSENGER's Student Planetary
Investigator Program and science department chair at Shasta High School
in Redding, California, says that the enhancements to QuickMap will
allow students to gain a much deeper understanding of the surface
morphology, geology, and planetary evolution of Mercury and to explore
STEM-related career fields than they would not normally be able to do
through conventional methods.

"The enhancements also can help the public acquire a broader view of
surface features on Mercury from the topography data (to examine
craters, hills, and valleys), and even 'colorized' views that can
enhance certain features that aren't usually evident from grey-scale
views of the surface," Grigsby says. "The new data will provide a much
richer experience not only for students studying Mercury, but for the
public as well."

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-20130906.html, and all of
the MESSENGER data archived at the PDS are available at
http://pds.nasa.gov. The team will deliver the next mission data set to
PDS in March 2014.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
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
and entered orbit about Mercury on March 17, 2011 (March 18, 2011 UTC),
to begin a yearlong study of its target planet. MESSENGER's extended
mission began on March 18, 2012, and ended one year later. A possible
second extended mission is currently under evaluation by NASA. Dr. Sean
C. Solomon, the Director of Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth
Observatory, 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 06 Sep 2013 03:42:36 PM PDT