San Marco Data To Become Network-Accessible

Volume 11, Number 3, September 1995
By Dieter Bilitza
Preparations have started for the ingest of the San Marco satellite data to NSSDC's network-accessible Data Archive and Distribution System (NDADS). The San Marco satellite mission has generated a unique data set for the study of the equatorial ionosphere and thermosphere (satellite inclination: 2 degrees; altitude range: 250 km - 600 km; time period: April-December 1988). NSSDC had played a critical role in the San Marco project through its support of the telemetry data processing.

The U.S./Italian satellite carried a Drag Balance Instrument (DBI) measuring the neutral densities; an Ion Velocity Instrument (IVI) measuring the plasma densities, temperatures, and velocities; an Electric Field Instrument (EFI); a Wind and Temperature Instrument (WATI); and an Atmospheric and Solar EUV Spectrometer Instrument (ASSI). All instruments operated as planned except WATI, which failed after 20 days. NSSDC has just received the IVI data from the PI (principal investigators) team at the University of Texas at Dallas, Texas, and is now putting these data (including orbit parameters) in ASCII format onto NDADS. The DBI and EFI data, already archived at NSSDC off line, will follow next with the ASSI data expected in the near future.

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Author:Miranda Beall
Curators: Erin Gardner and Miranda Beall
Responsible Official: Dr. Joseph H. King, Code 633
Last Revised: 04 Dec 1996 [EDG]