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About CIRS Data

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1. Organization

  • The CIRS archive consists of three, multi-volume data sets. One data set covers the Jupiter encounter, and the other two span the entire Saturn portion of the mission. The two Saturn data sets contain exactly the same data in two different formats.
  • The archive volumes contain CIRS data products: raw data (interferograms) and calibrated data (spectra), with associated pointing, navigation and spacecraft orientation information, instrument documentation, calibration files, calibration algorithms, representative software for handling the CIRS data files, and documentation necessary to produce higher level calibrated products.
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2. Data Formats

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The CIRS data volumes delivered by the team involve variable length files in a rather complicated file structure. We are producing parallel volumes for the Saturn encounter containing re-formatted data and metadata designed to simplify access to the data. Consequently there are two data sets for the Saturn encounter easily distinguished by the first numerical digit in the volume IDs:

  • COCIRS_0nnn indicates a volume in the original format.
  • COCIRS_5nnn indicates the corresponding re-formatted volume.

In the re-formatted version, the files have been converted from variable-length to fixed-length formats. ASCII versions of most binary files are also provided. In addition, file boundaries have been adjusted so that the data and metadata (timing and geometry information) associated with individual Cassini activities and with individual CIRS focal planes are found within a single set of files; no file contains information from more than one activity or one focal plane.

The following two links provide more detailed information on the original and re-formatted data respectively.

  • Original Format - details and additional format specific documentation for the original structure.
  • Re-formatted - details and additional format specific documentation for the re-formatted structure.


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