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how to find MOC images on the PDS?

2006, April 14 - 14:42 — europas_ice

I want to find a specific MOC image on the PDS http://pds.jpl.nasa.gov/. I do a "Data Search", select Instrument "Mars Oribiter Camera", click "Go!", and get two results. But where do I go from there?

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2006, April 17 - 09:13 — Ross A. Beyer

There are a couple of different ways

Although they have come a long way, the PDS is still struggling with usability issues, and this is one of them. If you are having problems navigating their website, please use the "Feedback" link at the bottom of their page and tell them so. They can't make it better if people don't complain.

If you already have the PRODUCT_ID of the MOC image that you want, there are a couple of ways to get it.

After you use their "Data Search" feature as you describe, you are presented with two data sets. The first, MGS-M-MOC-NA/WA-2-DSDP-L0-V1.0, contains data from the aerobraking and science phasing orbits, and the second, MGS-M-MOC-NA/WA-2-SDP-L0-V1.0, contains everything else. It is a shame that these two data sets have such similar names.

At any rate, you will see several links in the far right-hand column. One of them is "Imaging Online Archives". That leads you to a listing of a bunch of volume directories. Within those volumes, you will find directories that have names similar to the first part of a MOC image PRODUCT_ID (like m12024), and within those directories are the individual data files that you want. Unless you know which volume the image you are after is on, you may have to hunt around a little.

The other way you can find this info is going to the Geosciences node (link at bottom of main PDS page), follw the MGS data link, then the MOC link, and then following the FTP category of link which will take you to http://ida.wr.usgs.gov/d_access.htm, which shows you the same list of volumes as presented above, but with a little more helpful info for finding which volume you are after.