Viking Orbiter Raw Image Archive on CD-ROM (PDS)

Description

This data set consists of the full set of Experiment Data Records (EDRs) from the Viking 1 and 2 Orbiter Cameras. The EDRs are the unprocessed (raw) images taken by the Viking Visual Imaging Subsystems from Mars orbit. All non-video data has been stripped out and the remaining data compiled into video format. The images have then been compressed. The decompressed EDR frames are 1204 x 1056 pixel images. There are also 300 x 264 pixel subsampled (browse) frames available for each image. The EDR images contain 8-bit digital numbers that are proportional to the original 7-bit VIS instrument data, the data were multiplied by 2 to convert to 8 bits.

No other processing has been performed on the EDR image data. Thus, processing to perform radiometric and geometric calibration, removal of noise, and interpolation of missing data may be required to interpret the images. The image data can be restored to their uncompressed format using algorithms described in documentation on this disk. Image decompression software in several programming languages is also included on the disk. The images are arranged on the CD's in chronological order for each Orbiter, grouped by orbit number. There are 32 CD's with Viking 1 Orbiter images (VO_1001 to VO_1032) holding over 34,200 frames and 14 CD's for Viking 2 (VO_1051 to VO_1064) with over 15,600 images. Freeware to view these images is available at:

These CD's can be ordered through the NSSDC CD-ROM catalog at:

http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/cd-rom/web_store.cgi?category=viking

The data are also available online at:

http://pds-geosciences.wustl.edu/geodata/vo1_vo2-m-vis-2-edr-v2/