Friday, September 10, 2010

Chandrayaan-1 M3 lunar data released to Planetary Data System

Updated September 14, 2010 1336 UT

The M3 release of Optical Period 1, Level 1B data products, is now accessible via the online data volumes. Corresponding Level 0 data products are forthcoming as they are being updated by the team to ensure ease of use and compliance with PDS standards. More info can be found at the Chandrayaan-1 M3 mission page.

Note: The national treasure Charles A. Wood, curator of LUNAR PICTURE of the DAY (LPOD) posted what many will discover to be a more understandable summary of this important development HERE. - Ed.

Carle Pieters
Principal Investigator
Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M3)
Brown University

It is with great pleasure to announce that the first installment of Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M3) data has been released and is now available through PDS: http://img.pds.nasa.gov/ http://pds-imaging.jpl.nasa.gov/volumes/m3.html

M3 is an orbital imaging spectrometer that operated from 450 to 3000 nm. It was built at JPL and flown on India’s Chandrayaan-1 lunar spacecraft. Almost all data were taken in the lower resolution “Global” mode that includes 85 simultaneous co-registered spectral channels. More information about M3 can be found at the M3 website (being updated): https://m3.jpl.nasa.gov/NEWS/

This first release is Level 1B (L1B) spectral image cubes calibrated through radiance at sensor for Optical Period 1 (OP1) of Chandrayaan-1 operations, along with all their selenolocation and observation geometry back planes. No data re-sampling has been performed. L1B data for Optical Period 2 (OP2) are being processed and are expected to be released in December.

Higher-level calibrations continue, and Level 2 data (~reflectance) for both OP1 and OP2 are scheduled to be released in June 2011.

The M3 science team is planning a tutorial session to be held early in the week at Fall AGU for those who would like to learn more about how to work efficiently with M3 data. We will also schedule short presentations at the PDS exhibit during the week. The timing for both of these will be set after the AGU program is determined.

Best wishes from the M3 Team

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