Review Panel Telecon notes. 

• Red entries indicate actions to be taken to remove a lien. 
• Blue entries describe the steps taken to respond to the comment.

Review submitted by Shawn M Brooks 10 Apr 2007

  - As with most every PDS Rings Node product I've reviewed, the

 PDS Cassini CIRS data set is well organized with a consistent,

 easily understood hierarchical structure.  There is a wealth of

 detail to be found among this archive (e.g. description of the

 CIRS instrument, noise and spike discussion).  However, it seems

 that the hierarchical nature of the archive leads to a lot of

 unnecessary repetition.  For example, is it really necessary to

 have identical descriptions of the volume in each subdirectory?

The files *INFO.TXT are a PDS requirement.  We can do a better job of explaining which files are duplicated from one volume and directory to another.

Resolution: We have avoided any unnecessary duplication of *INFO.TXT files among subdirectories of the same volume. However, repeating certain files on each volume remains a requirement of the PDS standards.

  - Would it be possible to include a file containing a list of

 observations and the start and end times of those observations?

 The data are organized using a YY-MM-DD format, whereas I am used

 to thinking of them in a YY-DOY format.  The inclusion of such a

 file would help a user such as myself navigate this data volume.

This is found in some of the index files.  We will document it better and may also reorganize some of the indices (see notes to Mark Rose's comments) to simplify this problem.

We also note that a set of cumulative index files will make the process of searching the data set simpler.

Resolution: A new file INDEX/TIMELINE.TAB lists the start and stop time of each CIRS activity in both YY-MM-DD and YY-DOY formats. The existence of this file is noted in the root-level AAREADME.TXT file and in INDEX/INDXINFO.TXT.

  - Exactly how were variable length records turned into fixed

 length records?  (Dumb question, I know, but I can't quite tell.)

  Was it something as simple as segregating spectra by their

 record length?

Yes. This will be clarified in the documentation.

  - Over what wavenumber range have the integrated radiances

 described in the ISPM_ASCII.FMT file been taken?  I know that,

 particularly in the case of FP1 data, noise at the long

 wavenumber end of the spectra degrade the utility of this

 parameter.  If the size of this data volume is a problem, I might

 suggest cutting this parameter.

This information was copied from the corresponding original CIRS volumes and we're not really in a position to change it.  Consensus was to leave this information alone but clarify this matter in the tutorial.

Resolution: We have not changed anything. We believe that the problem has been reduced by the new calibration pipeline.

  - I personally dislike the YY format of the file names,

 particularly the YY+50 for the re-formatted data.  I realize,

 however, that this may be necessary due to PDS conventions.  I

 just thought I'd point it out, though.

This was required for conformance to PDS volume naming standards.  No change.

  - Just what are the origins of Vanilla?  I thought that it had

 something to do with previous Mars missions, but the discussion

 in TUTORIAL.TXT implies to me that it was created for Cassini.

We will note the Mars TES origins of Vanilla in the documentation.

Resolution: TUTORIAL.TXT provides a a few sentences about the origins of Vanilla for the TES instrument on MGS, and includes a pointer to the TES documentation files.

  - It seems that geometry data referring to Saturn's rings are

 referenced with the number 699, the NAIF ID for Saturn.  That

 this is so should be explicitly mentioned.  Maybe it is, but I

 couldn't find it.

Yes, the NAIF ID refers to the center of a body, so the rings and planet share ID = 699.  This will be noted in the tutorial.

Resolution: This is now noted in TUTORIAL.TXT.

      As I said, I couldn't actually plot up the data.  But, I

 know that some of the observations have had problems where the

 data files were calibrated inconsistently.  This showed up in our

 analysis as a sudden jump in ring temperature.  I remember this

 particularly for a SHAD or a SCAN earlier in the mission (it

 would be included with this release of the CIRS data).  I don't

 know if this problem has been solved, but I should probably take

 the time to look for it in this data set and report back if I

 find it.

We can note that these sudden jumps occasionally occur.  They can be recognized by a sudden jump in the time tag associated with the calibration data, which is also recorded in the files.  We will explain this in the tutorial and warn users to beware of discontinuities.

Resolution: This particular problem has been solved in the latest revisions to the CIRS calibration pipeline. Because the problem has gone away, we do not mention this particular issue.

However, we have also added a file RELNOTES.TXT to the DOCUMENT directory. This file is produced by the CIRS team but they archive it in their DATA/APODSPEC subdirectory. The file is easier to find in its new location. The existence of this file is indicated in the top-level AAREADME.TXT file and also in DOCUMENT/DOCINFO.TXT.