1. Getting Planetary Science Data
Dr. Eric E. Palmer
Principal Investigator of the
Asteroid/Dust Subnode of the PDS

2. Deployed to Saudi Arabia

3. Studying Asteroids ?
Hard to find data ? ?

4. Lunar and Planetary Lab U of Az

5. Shape Models for OSIRIS-REx Archiving Asteroid/Dust Data
Two Projects
Shape Models for OSIRIS-REx
Archiving Asteroid/Dust Data

6. My Goal: Help you understand how to get data from the PDS

7. Where does planetary data come from?
Current missions
Many missions actively support Citizen Science

8. Where does planetary data come from?
Make your own data
Backyard telescopes

9. Where does planetary data come from?
Old data
Missions and some ground-base observations

10. Planetary Data System
Federation of nodes focused on different types of data
Range from simple optical images to complex magnetic fields
Primary Goal: Archive data
The archive has matured over time with better searching and metadata as time has gone on
Secondary Goal: Host the data
Provide the data for access
Started with physical images and print documents
Eventually CDs/DVDs. Now downloads
Host the data in usable format
Provide tools to search through huge collections of data

11. PDS Nodes
Node are generally set up by “Discipline” — meaning they focus on a category of data rather than a specific target
Geoscience
Imaging (Cartography)
Atmosphere
Planetary Plasma Interactions (solar wind, magnetosphere)
Navigational & Ancillary Information (NAIF)
Two are more “Target” specific
Ring-Moon Systems
Small Bodies

12. Challenges Lots of data Not always organized the way expected
Difficult to find out who to talk to
Contact any node
Contact a node that appears to be relevant
Card by the PDS table in the lobby

13. Using PDS Search

14. Using PDS Search (cont)

15. Jupiter’s 4 largest moons Imaging and Cartography —
Atmosphere —
Saturn
Uranus
Neptune
Rings and Moon Systems —
Jupiter and Saturn’s rings
Small moons that interact with the rings
Small Bodies —
Asteroids
Comets
Dust
NAIF —
Handles spacecraft telemetry to calculate spacecraft position and what it was pointing at when data was collected
Geosciences —
Mercury
Venus
Moon
Mars
Jupiter’s 4 largest moons
Imaging and Cartography —
A copy of every image (except for LRO)
Topography of Moon and Mercury
Geologic Map
Planetary Plasma Interactions —
Solar Wind
Magnetosphere and fields

16. Things to Consider
Almost every instrument was custom built to be optimized for the mission
Data is complex
Require careful calibration, processing and evaluation
Data formats are frequently unique
Standard “consumer” tools seldom work
Documentation, if available, is usually technical

17. Things To Consider
Most of the data is in large groups called Bundles or Collections
Thus, require large downloads and effort to parse through the data to locate specific things
As of right now, only “images” can be searched as a specific observation
Nodes with image data have tools to search by latitude, longitude, pixel resolution, observational parameters, etc.
Other data (spectra, dust count, magnetic fields, etc.) were not provided in a way that facilitates search
Images are one of the most used data sets