Europlanet Science Congress 2020
Virtual meeting
21 September – 9 October 2020
Europlanet Science Congress 2020
Virtual meeting
21 September – 9 October 2020
EPSC Abstracts
Vol.14, EPSC2020-759, 2020
https://doi.org/10.5194/epsc2020-759
Europlanet Science Congress 2020
© Author(s) 2020. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Mars and Venus Exploration: A mapping, visualisation, and data analysis application for SPICAM/V high-level science data products

Nick Cox, Jeronimo Bernard-Salas, Stephane Ferron, Jean-Luc Vergely, Laurent Blanot, and Antoine Mangin
Nick Cox et al.
  • ACRI-ST, Space Sciences, Toulouse, France (astro@acri-st.fr)

In the era of big data and cloud storage and computing, new ways for scientists to approach their research are emerging, which impact directly how science progresses and discoveries are made. This development has led the European Space Agency (ESA) to establish a reference framework for space mission operation and exploitation by scientific communities: the ESA Datalabs (EDL). The guiding principle of the EDL concept is to move the user to the data and tools, and to enable users to publish applications (e.g. processors, codes, pipelines, analysis and visualisation tools) within a trusted environment, close to the scientific data, and permitting the whole scientific community to discover new science products in an open and FAIR approach.

In this context we will present a proto-type science application (aka Sci-App) for the exploration and visualization of Mars and Venus using the SPICAM/V Level-2 data available from the ESA Planetary Science Archive (PSA). This demonstrator facilitates the extraction and compilation of scientific data from the PSA and ease their integration with other tools through VO interoperability thus increasing their scientific impact. The tool’s key modular functionalities are 1) interactive data query and retrieval (i.e. search archive metadata), 2) interactive visualisation (i.e. geospatial info of query results, data content display of spectra, atmospheric vertical profiles), 3) data manipulation (i.e. create local maps or data cubes), and 4) data analysis (in combination with other connected VO tools). The application allows users to select, visualise and analyse both Level 2A products, which consist of e.g. transmission and radiance spectra, and level 2B products, which consist of retrieved physical parameters, such as atmospheric aerosol properties and vertical density profiles for (trace) gases in the Martian or Venusian atmosphere.

Our goal is to deploy the (containerised) Sci-App to the EDL and similar initiatives for uptake by the space science community. In the future, we expect to incorporate access to other Mars/Venus atmospheric data sets, particularly the measurements obtained with the NOMAD and ACS instruments on the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter. The community can also use this application as a starting point for their own tool development for other data products/missions.

How to cite: Cox, N., Bernard-Salas, J., Ferron, S., Vergely, J.-L., Blanot, L., and Mangin, A.: Mars and Venus Exploration: A mapping, visualisation, and data analysis application for SPICAM/V high-level science data products, Europlanet Science Congress 2020, online, 21 September–9 Oct 2020, EPSC2020-759, https://doi.org/10.5194/epsc2020-759, 2020