Hands-on session on the PSA. Solutions to the exercices.

Exercise 1

How many images are available on the PSA from Mars satellites?

Solution.

You can search first the images for Phobos, and then for Deimos:

  1. Open the Planetary Features and Target Search Panel.
  2. Select Search Target by Coordinates.
  3. Select Target Body PHOBOS.
  4. Open the Mars Express panel.
  5. Select the HRSC tab.
  6. Execute query.

Repeat the operation for Deimos.

Exercise 2

Use the PSA Classical User Interface to query the crater named Pollack for the nadir channel of the HRSC instrumemt flown on Mars Express.

  1. Look at the quicklook image and download all related documentation related to this data product.
  2. Visualize the footprint of the resulting images on the PSA Map based User Interface.
  3. Determine the longitude and latitude boundaries of the resulting images.
  4. download the resulting products.

Solution.

  1. Open the Planetary Features and Target Search Panel.
  2. Select Target Body Mars, and Feature Type Crater.
  3. Go to the Mars Express Panel and select the HRSC tab.
  4. Select the HRSC_NADIR Detector ID.



Once the query has been executed:

  1. Click on the icon on the right to see the image.
  2. Click on the Retrieve menu on the right, and download all the documentation.
  3. Click on the Mex Map Browser to see the footprints on the Mars surface.
  4. Click on Advanced Search to go back to the classical view. Select the check-boxes for all the products.
  5. Click on the Delivery Basket panel, to see the shopping basket.
  6. Click on Submit Request to download the products.

Exercise 3

Use the PSA Classical User Interface to query OMEGA and HRSC data for the volcano Olympus Mons.

  1. How many data products are returned for OMEGA and how many for HRSC?

Solution.

  1. Open the Planetary Features and Target Search Panel.
  2. Select Mons in Feature type.
  3. Type Olympus Mons in Feature Name PHOBOS.
  4. Open the Mars Express panel.
  5. Select the HRSC tab.
  6. Execute query.
  7. Repeat the operation for OMEGA.

Exercise 4

Use the PSA Dataset Browser Interface to download the OMEGA Catalog directory.

  1. Understand the directory and file naming convention.
  2. What kind of information can be found there?
  3. Where is located the information about the data in the dataset?
  4. What's the difference between MISSION.CAT and INSTHOST.CAT?

Solution.

  1. Open the Dataset Browser interface.
  2. Select OMEGA.
  3. The entry point for the catalogs in the dataset is VOLDESC.CAT, in the top level directory. Find the corresponding catalog for the data.
  4. Have a look at MISSION.CAT and INSTHOST.CAT and try to find the difference.

Exercise 5

Use the PSA Dataset Browser to understand the SPICAM instrument onboard Mars Express. What kind of an instrument is it?

Solution.

  1. Open the Dataset Browser interface.
  2. Select SPICAM.
  3. Find the instrument catalog and read it.