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

This bundle contains the following collections:

data_cdr - calibrated data products
data_rdr_radr - derived data products
data_gdr - gridded (map) data products
browse_gdr - browse versions of the gridded products
document - the MLA RDR 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 calibrated product collection contains MLA science and auxiliary data products
calibrated to physical units. The collection also contains calibrated, geolocated range data as
profile measurements of the planetary radius. A description of each product type is given in the
table below. Code refers to the product type abbreviation used in the file name, where relevant.


Code     Product Type        Description                                             Storage Format

STA      Engineering         This product type contains instrument status            ASCII Table   
                             information in original telemetry counts and physical                 
                             units.                                                                

RADR     Geolocated          This product type contains geolocated 1064-nm           ASCII Table   
         Radiometric         geometric albedo data at zero phase, along with                       
                             ancillary data based on active measurements.                          

HAD      Hardware            This product type contains information about the        ASCII Table   
         Diagnostic          instrument and background brightness from the                         
                             detector. The data are in original telemetry counts                   
                             and physical units.                                                   

SCICDR   Science             This product type consists of flight data ranging       ASCII Table   
                             time and ancillary information. Values have been                      
                             converted into physical and engineering units.                        

SCIRDR   Geolocated          This product type contains calibrated altimetry data    ASCII Table   
         Science V1          that have been merged with SPICE data to geolocate                    
                             the MLA ranging data.                                                 

---      Map V1              This product type contains MLA-derived altimetry        Image Array   
                             maps.                                                   and JPEG2000  

MLA Calibrated products have the following file names:
mlazzzxxxyymmddhhnn.tab
where:
zzz = Product Type (Code)
xxx = CDR or DDR
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
nn  = 2-digit minute corresponding to the first record in the data

MLA Calibrated GDR equirectangular products have the following file names:
hzzz_rr.xxx
where:
h   = Target planet Mercury
zzz = Product type:
dem = Digital Elevation Model
dec = Digital Counts
rr  = resolution in pixels per degree
xxx = File extension:
img = binary image
jp2 = JPEG2000

MLA Calibrated GDR polar stereographic products have the following file names:
hzzz_ttd_rrrm.xxx
where:
h   = Target planet Mercury
zzz = Product type:
dem = Digital Elevation Model
dec = Digital Counts
tt  = minimum latitude
d   = north “N” or south “S” pole
rrr = resolution in m/pixel
m   = meters/pixel
xxx = File extension:
img = binary image
jp2 = JPEG2000

MLA Calibrated RDR products have the following file names:
mlazzzyymmddhhnn.tab
where:
zzz = Product type
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
nn  = 2-digit minute corresponding to the first record in the data

There is one other polar stereographic map DEM product produced from MLA data named 
msgr_dem_mla_mp_v01.img, with a corresponding counts product named
 msgr_dem_mla_np_count_v01.img.

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.