X-Ray Spectrometer (XRS) Raw Data
MESSENGER Mission to Mercury

This bundle contains the following collections:

data_edr - raw data products
document - the XRS 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 XRS raw product collection consists of uncalibrated observations recorded by the XRS
instrument. The collection contains two product types including raw X-ray spectra and commands
executed by the instrument. 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, where relevant.


Code     Product Type        Description                                             Storage Format

CMD      Command             This product type contains a list of commands           ASCII Table   
                             executed by the XRS instrument.                                       

---      Spectra             This product type contains X-ray spectra measured by    Binary Table  
                             the XRS instrument's three detectors and associated                   
                             instrument parameters.                                                

XRS Raw products have the following file names:
xrsyyyyddd.dat
where:
yyyy = 4-digit year corresponding to the Mercury Elapsed Time (MET) for each product
ddd  = 3-digit day of year corresponding to the MET for each product in the Raw

XRS Raw Engineering products have the following file names:
xrs_cmdyyyyddd.tab
where:
yyyy = 4-digit year corresponding to the Mercury Elapsed Time (MET) for each product
ddd  = 3-digit day of year corresponding to the MET for each product

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.