Multi-mission laser altimeter data processing and storage at DLR/TUB

Kurzfassung

The Institute of Planetary Research (IPR) at DLR has a long tradition in the processing, analysis, and archiving of planetary mapping data. In the past years, we also have become interested in laser altimeter data sets from various planetary missions. Consequently, IPR has joined forces with Technical University of Berlin to develop a system for the processing and storage of laser altimeter datasets, which are typically very large. The system is based on a Linux server and uses PostgreSQL and PostGIS as database software. The system currently contains all data from the MOLA (Mars Global Surveyor) and LALT (Lunar Kaguya mission) experiments. Data from the LOLA (Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter) experiment will be included shortly. The main purpose of the system is a fast search for laser altimeter data points in a specied area on the surface of the planetary body. Additional functions for recovery of housekeeping data, as well as the calculation of physical parameters like slope and roughness are also implemented. It is planned to use this laser data processing system also for the coming data from the Mercury laser altimeter experiments MLA (MESSENGER) and BELA (BepiColombo).