Mercury Laser Altimeter (MLA) Raw Data
MESSENGER Mission to Mercury

This bundle contains the following collections:

data_edr - raw data products
document - the MLA EDR Software Interface Specification and other relevant documents
miscellaneous - the PDS3 index table for this archive

This PDS4 bundle has been migrated from a PDS3 data volume. For details, see the document
geo_notes_and_errata.pdf in the document collection.

Each document and data product in this bundle is described by a PDS4 label in a separate file with 
the same name but with the extension XML. PDS4 labels are XML (eXtended Markup Language) files that 
conform to the PDS4 Information Model XML schema at https://pds.nasa.gov/pds4/schema/released/. 
They are best viewed in an XML-aware text editor, and may be used by software that can manipulate 
XML documents.

The MESSENGER MLA raw product collection consists of uncalibrated observations from the MLA
instrument. There are three product types in this collection, including raw science products,
instrument status, and hardware diagnostic information. A single raw product file typically
contains data collected over one Earth day. A description of each product type is given in the
table below. Code refers to the product type abbreviation used in the file name.


Code     Product Type        Description                                             Storage Format

STA      Engineering         This product type contains MLA instrument engineering   Binary Table  
                             data. Parameters are included such as voltages,                       
                             temperatures, and timing stored in the original                       
                             telemetry counts.                                                     

HAD      Hardware            The Hardware Diagnostic product type contains           Binary Table  
         Diagnostic          diagnostic information about the instrument and                       
                             background brightness information from the detector.                  
                             All values are the original telemetry counts.                         

SCI      Science             The Science product type contains the ranging           Binary Table  
                             information as collected by the MLA instrument in its                 
                             Science mode. Values have not been calibrated or                      
                             converted into engineering units.                                     

MLA Raw products have the following file names:
mlazzzyymmddhhnn.dat
where:
zzz = Product Type (Code)
yy  = last 2 digits of the year in which the first data record was acquired
mm  = 2-digit month in which the first data record was acquired
dd  = 2-digit day in which the first data record was acquired
hh  = 2-digit hour corresponding to the first record in the data

This bundle was created and archived by the Geosciences Node of the Planetary Data System. 
Questions about this bundle may be directed to geosci@wunder.wustl.edu.