Radio Science sources

[From Frank Lemoine, GSFC, in response to a user's request.]

The radio science data for at least the Mars-orbiting spacecraft and Venus as well (meaning Magellan) and MESSENGER (Mercury) are at the Geosciences Node of the Planetary Data System.

For example for MRO the direct link is the following URL.

http://pds-geosciences.wustl.edu/mro/mro-m-rss-1-magr-v1/mrors_0xxx/

Or by navigating from the higher level directory.

http://pds-geosciences.wustl.edu/

The MRO archive has directories labelled "tnf"  -- Raw TRK2-34 data and "odf"  -- Orbit Data File, TRK2-18.

The TRK2-18 is easier to handle -- the TRK2-34 takes a lot more work to decode. I'm uncertain if there are Delta-DOR data included in these data files.

The TRK2-18 data is 1 sec -- and contains a 4-5 sec signal that seems to emanate from a malfunction in the radio system. One needs to average the data over 5 or 10 seconds - and that removes the spurious signal.

Papers that discuss the analysis of these MRO tracking data (and those of other Mars orbiters) include

Konopliv et al. (2016),

Genova et al. (2016)

The following paper discusses the analysis of the small data set of MRO radio occultation data, if that is your interest.  The author of this paper, David Hinson (SETI Institute, formerly Stanford Univ) can supply you with information about these data and where they were archived on the PDS.

Hinson et al. (2014)

Genova, A., et al., "Seasonal and static gravity field of Mars from MGS, Mars Odyssey and MRO radio science"

Icarus, 2016, doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.icarus.2016.02.050

Konopliv, A., et al. "An improved JPL Mars gravity field and orientation from Mars orbiter and lander tracking data"

Icarus, 2016, doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.icarus.2016.02.052

Hinson, D., et al. "Initial results from radio occultation measurements with the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter: A nocturnal mixed layer in the tropics and comparisons with polar profiles from the Mars Climate Sounder"

Icarus, 2014, doi: 10.1016/j.icarus.2014.09.019

If you are looking for data from other missions (not the ones mentioned above), you can also ask Susan Slavney - who is the manager of the Geosciences Node.

Susan Slavney [slavney@wunder.wustl.edu]

Let me know if you have any other questions. Good luck.

Best regards,

Frank Lemoine

NASA GSFC.

(At the SLR workshop in Potsdam, Germany)