Overview

The Solar System Workings (SSW) program is described in Appendix C.3 of the ROSES 2017 NRA. On July 10, 2017, it was modified by Amendment 15 which replaced the requirement for a step 1 proposal to the requirement for a Notice of Intent (NOI). Amendment 15 also adjusted the proposal due date to February 1, 2018 and revised some of the content of the call. The full document can be accessed under Solicitations at the NSPIRES web site.

This is a very wide ranging call. While we provide a brief synopsis here, proposers must refer to the call for specifics.

The Solar System Workings program solicits proposals for innovative scientific research related to understanding the atmospheric, climatological, dynamical, geologic, physical, and chemical processes occurring within the Solar System. This program is open to investigations relevant to surfaces and interiors of planetary bodies, planetary atmospheres, rings, orbital dynamics, and exospheres and magnetospheres. The Solar System Workings program values the potential of interdisciplinary efforts to solve key scientific questions. The program also values research in comparative planetology. Research supported by this call may include data synthesis, laboratory studies that examine physical or chemical properties and processes, studies of sample or analog materials of other Solar System bodies, field studies of terrestrial analogs of planetary environments, or theoretical and numerical modeling of physical or chemical processes.

This program seeks to understand processes that occur throughout the Solar System, as well as those specific to individual objects and systems, but inform our understanding of the fundamental processes at work. A nonexhaustive list of areas of research called for in this solicitation follows. For conciseness in this list, the term "planetary" refers to Solar System objects other than the Sun (ranging in size from small objects, like comets and asteroids, through natural satellites, and up to planets) and structures (such as atmospheres, ionospheres, and ring systems).

Data Sources

The specific data availability and restrictions given for the 2017 SSW are given in Sections C.3 and C.1 of ROSES 2017:

For volumes at the Ring-Moon Systems Node which meet the SSW basic eligibility requirements for publicly available timing (based on the Step 2 Proposal due date), see the Data Status tab.

The Ring-Moon Systems Node generates HST "volumes" which do not contain data. They point to data maintained at STScI. These volumes identify HST data, in the public domain, which contain observations of one or more outer planet system(s) (Jupiter through Pluto), and are used to support our search tool, OPUS.

Finding SSW Relevant Data within the PDS

• Search for data

our Outer Planets Unified Search tool OPUS, allows users to search for and obtain subsets of data based on a wide range of constraints. OPUS supports Cassini CIRS, ISS, UVIS and VIMS data, New Horizons LORRI and MVIC data, Galileo SSI data, Voyager ISS data, HST ACS, WFPC2 and WFC3 data. The results returned include preview products and tables of metadata.

• Browse our Data Directories
• Download entire volumes as tar.gz files.
• Use our Mission Information Pages

Our mission information pages provide overviews of data sets and instruments along with links to detailed descriptions of the instruments and to the data and to Ring-Moon Systems Node generated browse images and footprint diagrams.

• New Horizons . Our New Horizon page provides access to the full sets of the available LORRI and MVIC data from post launch cruise through the Pluto encounter, including browse images for all of the data and tables of enhanced geometric metadata for the LORRI observations.
• Galileo. Our Galileo page supports the Solid State Imager (SSI) and the Near-Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (NIMS).
• Voyager. Our Voyager pages support ISS including new data sets of uncompressed, calibrated and geometrically corrected images, IRIS, and occultation data from PPS, UVS, and RSS. These pages also provide access to the Voyager SPICE kernels generated at the Ring-Moon Systems Node.
• HST. Our HST page describes our HST holdings including the volumes in our "HST Observations of the Outer Planets" project which provide references to HST observations made with either the ACS, WFC3, or WFPC2 that included an outer planet system. The volumes are updated periodically.
• Uranus Ring Plane Crossing . While publicly available URPX observations obtained under Planetary Astronomy Program are covered by this NRA, we do not currently have any such data. If eligible URPX data becomes available at the Ring's Node prior to the proposal deadline, this page will reflect it.

• The PDS NAIF Node and observation geometry.

SPICE data and software may be obtained from the NAIF web site.SPICE data files contain spacecraft and solar system geometry data necessary to interpret scientific observations from space-based instruments. The SPICE system also includes a large suite of software, mostly in the form of subroutines, that users incorporate in their own application programs to read SPICE files and to compute derived observation geometry, such as altitude, latitude/longitude, and lighting angles.

Additional links within PDS

• The PDS has prepared a Proposer's Archiving Guide, specifically to support DAP proposers.

• For more information about proposing with respect to PDS archiving, see the PDS Engineering Node's Information for Proposers web page.

• The PDS Engineering Node's ROSES Support pages provides links to ROSES support pages at other PDS Discipline Nodes

• The PDS NAIF Node and observation geometry.

SPICE data and software may be obtained from the NAIF web site. SPICE data files contain spacecraft and solar system geometry data necessary to interpret scientific observations from space-based instruments. The SPICE system also includes a large suite of software, mostly in the form of subroutines, that users incorporate in their own application programs to read SPICE files and to compute derived observation geometry, such as altitude, latitude/longitude, and lighting angles.