Excerpted from http://pds.jpl.nasa.gov:
"The PDS archives and distributes scientific data from NASA planetary missions,
astronomical observations, and laboratory measurements. The PDS is sponsored by
NASA's Office of Space Science. Its purpose is to ensure the long-term usability
of NASA data and to stimulate advanced research."
This software is neither endorsed nor supported by NASA, JPL, its research affiliates,
or the United States Government.
This sofware is intended to make handling and parsing PDS data files generated by
the 2003-2004 Mars Exploration Rovers Mission
an easier task. PDS data files have long filenames such as
1P136346286ETH1600P2550L7M1.IMG
, which provide a great deal of coded information about the data contained within the file,
but the filenames are annoying and tedious to decode on a manual basis -- especially when several
hundred data files are involved.
The PDS Utilities simplify the task of understanding this metadata, by providing tools
for translating the values within the filename into useful, human readable information.
The PDS Utilities software is coded in the Java language, and provides an API for
parsing PDS filenames, as well as a command-line utility that, when given a PDS filename,
will interpret the filename, and print out a text summary of the information within
the filename.
Javadocs for the API are located within the doc/ directory, within the pdsutils-0.1.tar.gz
archive. An online version of the Javadocs is also available.
To use the command line utility under UNIX-type systems, run the getinfo.sh shell script
in the following way, where $pdsfilename is substituted for the name of the PDS file
to interpret (see "About the PDS Utilities" above, for an example.
./getinfo.sh $pdsfilename
To use the command line utility under DOS-type systems, a batch file, getinfo.bat, is
provided. To run the utility, type the following command, substituting %pdsfile% for
the name of the PDS file to analyze:
getinfo %pdsfilename%
NOTE: For both DOS and UNIX-type systems, you must have the path to the java executable in
your PATH. If you don't have the Java JRE, it can be downloaded from
http://java.sun.com
Here's an example of typical output from getinfo:
PDS Label Information for file 1P136346286ETH1600P2550L7M1.IMG
--------------------------------------------------------------
Translated information
----------------------
Spacecraft: Spirit (MER-A)
Instrument: Pancam
Start Spacecraft Clock: 136346286
Product Type: Thumbnail EDR
Site: 16
Site Position: 00
Sequence Type: PMA & Remote Sensing instruments
Sequence operation: Pancam sequence
Camera eye: Left
Filter (wavelength/bandpass) nm @ -10C: L7 (432/32-short pass)
Creator: MIPL (OPGS) at JPL
Version: 1
Product type: PDS labeled camera image EDR/RDR
Raw PDS Label information
-------------------------
Spacecraft: 1
Instrument: P
Start Spacecraft Clock: 136346286
Product Type: ETH
Site: 16
Site Position: 00
Sequence Type: P
Sequence operation: 2550
Camera eye: L
Filter (wavelength/bandpass) nm @ -10C: 7
Creator: M
Version: 1
Product type: IMG
Last updated 2004-8-15 18:05 PDT by Rupert Scammell
Mars panorama used in the title of this page is from NASA/JPL/Cornell, with colorization
by Daniel Crotty.
