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SLR-Mail No.556

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Date:2000-02-28 18:19:00
Sender:Van Husson, ILRS Central Bureau <Van S. Husson <dsgvsh@slral2.atsc.allied.com>>
Subject:[SLR-Mail] No. 556: NP Format and Data Integrity Checks
Author:Van Husson, ILRS Central Bureau
Content:********************************************************************************
SLR Electronic Mail 2000-02-28 18:19:00 UTC Message No. 556
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Author: Van Husson, ILRS Central Bureau
Subject: NP Format and Data Integrity Checks

The following ILRS Normal Point (NP) quality control procedures for
NP format and data integrity were implemented Thursday, 24 February
2000 at the NASA SLR Operations Center. These procedures were
presented and approved at the Data Formats and Procedures WG meeting
in Florence, Italy (September 1999).

Stations are encouraged to build these checks into their data
processing system to enable the earliest possible detection of a
problem.


NP FORMAT and DATA INTEGRITY ALGORITHMS (FEB 2000)

An ILRS NP pass/pass segment must meet the following two ILRS
standards for format and data integrity. A pass which does not
meet these standards will be placed in a bad file. The station will
be notified via email of the non-conformance issue and will be
responsible for fixing the error and resupplying the corrected NP
data.

1. ILRS NP FORMAT COMPLIANCE

An ILRS NP pass is considered in the proper ILRS NP Format if ALL of
the following four conditions are meet (Note: a pass can be part of a
pass (i.e., pass segment) or an entire pass, but not two passes
within a single pass):

a. The first line of the NP pass consists of five ´9´s starting in
column 1.

b. The second line of the NP pass consists of a valid header
record. A valid header record must have a record length or 54 or
55 bytes and the first 54 bytes must be NUMERIC or a ´-´.
(i.e., non-blank, no special characters except for a ´-´, and
no letters from the alphabet)

c. The third and each succeeding line of the NP pass are valid NP
data record(s). A valid NP data record must have a record length
of 54 bytes and all 54 bytes must be NUMERIC. Note: There must
be a least one NP record to be considered a valid pass.

d. The NPs are from the same satellite revolution (i.e., can not
have 2 or more passes with a single header record)

For example, below is considered a valid pass with ”m” NP records:

99999
[Valid Header Record]
[Valid Normal Point Data Record 1]
[Valid Normal Point Data Record 2]
...
...
...
[Valid Normal Point Data Record m]


2. ILRS NP DATA INTEGRITY COMPLIANCE

Data integrity is totally independent of format integrity. Data
integrity placed conditions on the values of certain fields within
the ILRS NP header and ILRS NP data records.

2.1 Header Record

The following fields within the header record will be validated.

a. Columns 1-7: The ILRS 7-digit satellite identifier must be valid.
(note: This number is a derived from the COSPAR identification).

b. Columns 10-12: The day of year must be between 1 and 365 for non
leap years and must be between 1 and 366 for leap years.

c. Columns 13-20: The Site Occupancy Designator (SOD) must be a
current valid SOD (note: the SOD is assigned by the CDDIS).

2.2 Data Record

The following fields within the data record will be validated.

a. Bytes 1-12: Time of laser firing must be between 0 and
863999999999 tenths of microseconds (i.e. > 0 seconds and
< 86400 seconds), inclusive.

b. Bytes 32-36: Surface pressure must be between 6000 and 11000
tenths of millibars (i.e., between 600 and 1100 millibars),
inclusive.

c. Bytes 37-40: Surface temperature must be between 2000 and 3400
tenths of degrees Kelvin, inclusive.

d. Bytes 41-43: Humidity must be between 0 and 100 percent,
inclusive.

Additional checks will also be performed on the NPs to ensure they
adhere to the ILRS Satellite Bin Size Standard and adhere to the
Herstmonceux Bin Formation Algorithm. Any passes containing NPs that
do not pass these criterion will still be delivered to the ILRS Data
Centers, but the station will be notified electronically of any NP
bin compliance issues.

3. ILRS NP BIN COMPLIANCE

a. Header Record Byte 43: The Normal Point Window Indicator must
be the ILRS agreed bin size for that particular satellite.

b. Bin formation is based from 0 Hours UTC (i.e., not from the
epoch of the first observation). The algorithm to test for this
is:

two consecutive NP will not have the same integer quotient when
their corresponding NP epochs (in seconds) divided by the
appropriate satellite bin size (in seconds).

Example: if NP epoch(i)/bin size = NP epoch(i+1)/bin size
then there is a bin formation violation

From: ”Van S. Husson”

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