Finding the Data You Want

1. Search Options

  • Use our search engine, OPUS to search for specific Cassini CIRS data products using a wide range of criteria.

    • Search results include data files, tables of associated metadata, and footprint diagrams for each observation. User selected data files can be bundled as tar.gz files for easy downloading.

  • The Access Original Format Data tab, provides a link to each volume and gives the time interval covered by the volume.

  • For more detailed searching, you can use the VOLUME_ID, coupled with subdirectory and file names (browse the data directories), or the INDEX.TAB files to find specific data (see below).

2. Interpreting the VOLUME_ID

The volume ID takes the form COCIRS_XXXX, where

  • COCIRS is the PDS abbreviation for Cassini Orbiter, Composite Infrared Spectrometer.
  • XXXX is the beginning month for the data volume, in the form YYMM starting with 0010. The data volume IDs are not sequential, particularly for the pre-SOI phase.

A brief overview of the various file types is given in a file DATAINFO.TXT in the DATA directory of each volume.

A comprehensive description of the file structure and various data ‘fragments’ is given in the Data Product and Label SIS, found in the DOCUMENTS directory on every volume:

3. Volume INDEX files

Each volume has an INDEX subdirectory containing several files including:

  • INDXINFO.TXT: summarizes the structure and contents of the files in the INDEX subdirectory.

Users are encouraged to read an INDXINFO.TXT before working with the files in the INDEX subdirectory.

  • INDEX.TAB: an ASCII table file with one row for each data file on the volume. For Cassini CIRS, each index table contains only 8 columns and has limited utility for narrowing a search unless you know the time associated with the data for which you are searching. This example is from volume COCIRS_0010.

  • INDEX.LBL: the detached PDS label file for the INDEX.TAB file. This is a text file giving names and definitions of all the columns in the index.

  • C_TOL.ASC and S_TOL.ASC: Text tables listing all the spacecraft activities during the period (C23, S01 etc). C = (C)ruise sequence (prior to SOI); S = tour (S)equence. These may be used for determining the times of individual observations.

4. Where to go next

back to top
back to top