Catalog of Lunar Seismic Data from Apollo Passive Seismic Experiment on 8-mm Video Cassette

67 Pages·2009·0.54 MB·English

by  Yosio Nakamura

Catalog of Lunar Seismic Data
from Apollo Passive Seismic Experiment
on 8-mm Video Cassette (Exabyte) Tapes
prepared by
Yosio Nakamura
June 30, 1992
Institute for Geophysics
The University of Texas at Austin
8701 MoPac Boulevard
Austin, Texas 78759-8397
University of Texas Institute for Geophysics Technical Report No. 118
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The financial support for reformatting and copying these data tapes has been
provided by a grant from Institute of Space and Aeronautical Science (ISAS),
Ministry of Education, Japan. We thank Professor Hitoshi Mizutani of ISAS for
his assistance in our effort to preserve this irreplaceable data set. Mohammad Al-
Khuffash, John Kerzaya, Khurram Qureshi, Wayne Richerson, Peter Rung, and
Eitan Sadinsky, all undergraduate students at the University of Texas at Austin,
did most of the work in processing these data.
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PREFACE
We have recently reformatted and copied all of the lunar seismic data from Apollo Passive
Seismic Experiment (PSE), originally on more than 10,000 7-track magnetic tapes, onto 80 8-
mm video cassette (Exabyte) tapes. This was done to make the data more readily accessible to
users with modern computers and at the same time drastically reducing the physical size of the
recording media for storage (about 2000 to 1 reduction in volume).
This catalog gives a description of several different types of data in the data set, provides
their data formats, and lists time periods covered by each file in each of the tapes to facilitate
easy retrieval of desired data.
DATA SET DESCRIPTION
The data set includes all of the seismic data recorded at five of the six ALSEP (Apollo
Lunar Surface Experiment Package) stations set up by the U.S. astronauts during the Apollo
missions, 1969-1972, and continued operation till 1977. It also includes data from all the other
experiments from all ALSEP stations after March 1, 1976, and also seismology and meteorology
data from Viking Lander 2 on Mars.
There are four major types of tapes plus 4 additional tapes in the set. They are:
PSE tapes (40 tapes): — These are the copies of the original 7-track PSE tapes produced at
NASA Johnson Space Center (JSC) and contain continuous (24 hours a day) seismic data from
all of the PSE stations (Apollo 11, 12, 14, 15, and 16) from deployment of each station until
February 29, 1976, when the processing of the data was transferred to the University of Texas
Galveston Geophysics Laboratory (with an exception of Apollo 11 stations, which ceased to
operate earlier). Each file constitutes a copy from a single original 7-track tape, which generally
covered a period of 24 hours from a single station.
Normal-bit-rate work tapes (21 tapes): — After the data processing at NASA-JSC was
terminated on February 29, 1976, we processed the original range tapes (PCM FM tapes that
contained raw data received from the ALSEP stations on the moon) in Galveston to produce
computer tapes which contained the whole ALSEP data. The processed data were originally
written on 7-track tapes but later reformatted and copied onto 9-track tapes. The 8-mm work
tapes are the bit-by-bit copies of these 9-track tapes. The normal-bit-rate work tapes cover the
period from March 1, 1976 till September 30, 1977, when all of the stations were commanded to
stop data transmission. They contain data from all ALSEP experiments from all stations (12, 14,
15, 16 and 17) except when station 17 was operating at high bit rate (see below).
High-bit-rate work tapes (7 tapes): — These tapes are similar to normal-bit-rate work tapes
except that they contain only LSPE (Lunar Surface Profiling Experiment) data from Apollo 17
station when the station was operating at high bit rate.
Event tapes (8 tapes): — These tapes contain only those portions of the data where seismic
signals were detected by long-period instruments. The detected events are listed in Passive
Seismic Experiment Long-Period Event Catalog by Nakamura et al. (Galveston Geophysics
Laboratory Contribution No. 491 [Tech. Rept. No. 18], 1981). Each file constitutes a copy of a
single original 7-track event tape, which contained several events from a single station.
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P&E supplement tape: — This tape contains copies of PSE and event tapes which were skipped
earlier because of initial difficulty in reading some old tapes but recovered after the tapes were
cleaned.
Special event tape: — This tape contains data of specially selected deep moonquake, major
meteoroid impact, all shallow moonquake and all artificial impact events.
Viking tape: — This tape contains seismology and meteorology data from Viking Lander 2 on
Martian surface in 1976-1978 period.
Auxiliary data and document tape: — This tape contains copies of all documents and ancillary
data files generated during the course of the tape copying. Included in this tape are such files as
logs kept during copy operation, quality control outputs, and list of files in each tape, as well as
computer programs used at various stages of copy operation.
The table on the following two pages briefly describes contents of all 80 tapes. A more
detailed description of the contents of each tape is given later. [The time period covered by each
tape is given in year and days of the year.]
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Tape Label Type Station Time Period
A11-PSE PSE Apollo 11 1969/202 - 1969/237
A12-PSE-1 PSE Apollo 12 1969/323 - 1970/132
A12-PSE-2 PSE Apollo 12 1970/132 - 1970/305
A12-PSE-3 PSE Apollo 12 1970/305 - 1971/114
A12-PSE-4 PSE Apollo 12 1971/114 - 1971/295
A12-PSE-5 PSE Apollo 12 1971/295 - 1972/232
A12-PSE-6 PSE Apollo 12 1972/232 - 1973/156
A12-PSE-7 PSE Apollo 12 1973/156 - 1974/081
A12-PSE-8 PSE Apollo 12 1974/081 - 1974/365
A12-PSE-9 PSE Apollo 12 1975/001 - 1975/288
A12-PSE-10 PSE Apollo 12 1975/289 - 1976/060
A14-PSE-1 PSE Apollo 14 1971/036 - 1971/216
A14-PSE-2 PSE Apollo 14 1971/216 - 1972/029
A14-PSE-3 PSE Apollo 14 1972/028 - 1972/202
A14-PSE-4 PSE Apollo 14 1972/202 - 1973/016
A14-PSE-5 PSE Apollo 14 1973/016 - 1973/196
A14-PSE-6 PSE Apollo 14 1973/196 - 1973/365
A14-PSE-7 PSE Apollo 14 1974/001 - 1974/197
A14-PSE-8 PSE Apollo 14 1974/180 - 1974/359
A14-PSE-9 PSE Apollo 14 1974/360 - 1975/174
A14-PSE-10 PSE Apollo 14 1975/175 - 1975/346
A14-PSE-11 PSE Apollo 14 1975/347 - 1976/060
A15-PSE-1 PSE Apollo 15 1971/212 - 1972/026
A15-PSE-2 PSE Apollo 15 1972/026 - 1972/205
A15-PSE-3 PSE Apollo 15 1972/205 - 1973/008
A15-PSE-4 PSE Apollo 15 1973/008 - 1973/188
A15-PSE-5 PSE Apollo 15 1973/188 - 1973/365
A15-PSE-6 PSE Apollo 15 1974/001 - 1974/179
A15-PSE-7 PSE Apollo 15 1974/180 - 1974/359
A15-PSE-8 PSE Apollo 15 1974/360 - 1975/174
A15-PSE-9 PSE Apollo 15 1975/175 - 1975/343
A15-PSE-10 PSE Apollo 15 1975/344 - 1976/060
A16-PSE-1 PSE Apollo 16 1972/112 - 1972/281
A16-PSE-2 PSE Apollo 16 1972/281 - 1973/093
A16-PSE-3 PSE Apollo 16 1973/093 - 1973/273
A16-PSE-4 PSE Apollo 16 1973/273 - 1974/087
A16-PSE-5 PSE Apollo 16 1974/087 - 1974/266
A16-PSE-6 PSE Apollo 16 1974/267 - 1975/075
A16-PSE-7 PSE Apollo 16 1975/076 - 1975/250
A16-PSE-8 PSE Apollo 16 1975/251 - 1976/060
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Tape Label Type Station Time Period
WT-N-1 N.B.R. Work Apollo 12,14,15,16,17 1976/061 - 1976/086
WT-N-2 N.B.R. Work Apollo 12,14,15,16,17 1976/086 - 1976/116
WT-N-3 N.B.R. Work Apollo 12,14,15,16,17 1976/116 - 1976/148
WT-N-4 N.B.R. Work Apollo 12,14,15,16,17 1976/149 - 1976/177
WT-N-5 N.B.R. Work Apollo 12,14,15,16,17 1976/177 - 1976/200
WT-N-6 N.B.R. Work Apollo 12,14,15,16,17 1976/200 - 1976/226
WT-N-7 N.B.R. Work Apollo 12,14,15,16,17 1976/226 - 1976/256
WT-N-8 N.B.R. Work Apollo 12,14,15,16 1976/256 - 1976/286
WT-N-9 N.B.R. Work Apollo 12,14,15,16 1976/286 - 1976/325
WT-N-10 N.B.R. Work Apollo 12,14,15,16 1976/325 - 1976/356
WT-N-11 N.B.R. Work Apollo 12,14,15,16,17 1976/356 - 1977/018
WT-N-12 N.B.R. Work Apollo 12,14,15,16 1977/018 - 1977/050
WT-N-13 N.B.R. Work Apollo 12,14,15,16 1977/050 - 1977/081
WT-N-14 N.B.R. Work Apollo 12,14,15,16 1977/081 - 1977/114
WT-N-15 N.B.R. Work Apollo 12,14,15,16,17 1977/114 - 1977/137
WT-N-16 N.B.R. Work Apollo 12,14,15,16,17 1977/137 - 1977/162
WT-N-17 N.B.R. Work Apollo 12,14,15,16,17 1977/162 - 1977/187
WT-N-18 N.B.R. Work Apollo 12,14,15,16,17 1977/187 - 1977/211
WT-N-19 N.B.R. Work Apollo 12,14,15,16,17 1977/211 - 1977/238
WT-N-20 N.B.R. Work Apollo 12,14,15,16,17 1977/238 - 1977/271
WT-N-21 N.B.R. Work Apollo 12,14,15,16,17 1977/271 - 1977/273
WT-H-1 H.B.R. Work Apollo 17 1976/228 - 1976/265
WT-H-2 H.B.R. Work Apollo 17 1976/265 - 1976/304
WT-H-3 H.B.R. Work Apollo 17 1976/304 - 1976/342
WT-H-4 H.B.R. Work Apollo 17 1976/342 - 1977/015
WT-H-5 H.B.R. Work Apollo 17 1977/015 - 1977/053
WT-H-6 H.B.R. Work Apollo 17 1977/053 - 1977/090
WT-H-7 H.B.R. Work Apollo 17 1977/090 - 1977/115
A12-ET-1 Event Apollo 12 1969/324 - 1973/365
A12-ET-2 Event Apollo 12 1974/001 - 1977/273
A14-ET-1 Event Apollo 14 1971/037 - 1973/365
A14-ET-2 Event Apollo 14 1974/001 - 1977/273
A15-ET-1 Event Apollo 15 1971/214 - 1973/365
A15-ET-2 Event Apollo 15 1974/001 - 1977/273
A16-ET-1 Event Apollo 16 1972/112 - 1973/365
A16-ET-2 Event Apollo 16 1974/001 - 1977/273
P&E Suppl P&E Supplement Apollo 12,14,15,16 1970/229 - 1976/244
A-SE-1 Special Event Apollo 12,14,15,16 1969/324 - 1977/270
Viking Viking Viking Lander 2 1976/247 - 1978/060
Aux. Data & Doc Aux. Data & Doc. - -
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TAPE FORMAT DESCRIPTION
PSE and Event Tapes
• One file for each original PSE or Event tape
• Files are generally in chronological order, with some exceptions
• Record size: 19K (19,456 bytes), fixed-length format
• Each record consists of a 16-byte header plus 270 72-byte (old format) or 540 36-byte (new
format) logical records (frames) of data from 3 (old format) or 6 (new format) physical
records of the original PSE tape. [Each physical record of the original PSE tapes contained
90 logical records (frames) of data.]
• Header format:
Bytes Information (16-bit integers)
1-2 1 for PSE tapes; 2 for Event tapes
3-4 Apollo station number
5-6 original tape sequence number for PSE tapes; 2-digit station code plus 3-digit
original event tape sequence number for Event tapes
7-8 record number
9-10 year
11-12 format (0 = old, 1 = new)
13-14 number of physical records from original tape
15-16 original tape read error flags (lsb set if read error occurred while reading the first
physical record from the original tape, etc)
• Data format: In each logical record,
Long Word Bits Data
1 0 software time flag (set at JSC for clock substitution)
1 1-31 31 msb of 35-bit time of the year in ms
2 0-3 4 lsb of 35-bit time of the year in ms
2 4-7 ALSEP tracking station ID
2 8-13 bit error rate (from original tape)
2 14 data rate (1 = 1060 bps, 0 = 530 bps)
2 15-21 not used
For old format
2 22-31 ALSEP word 5
3-18 0-9 ALSEP words 1, 4, 9, 12, 16, 22, 26, 29, 33, 36, 40, 43, 46, 52,
58, 61
3-18 11-20 ALSEP words 2, 6, 10, 13, 18, 24, 27, 30, 34, 37, 41, 44, 48, 54,
59, 62
3-18 22-31 ALSEP words 3, 8, 11, 14, 20, 25, 28, 32, 35, 38, 42, 45, 50, 57,
60, 64
3-18 10, 21 not used
For new format
2 22-31 not used
3-8 0-9 ALSEP words 1, 9, 25, 33, 41, 46
3-8 11-20 ALSEP words 2, 11, 27, 35, 43, 57
3-8 22-31 ALSEP words 3, 13, 29, 37, 45, 59
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3-8 10, 21 not used
9 0-9 ALSEP word 61
9 10-31 not used
• Each ALSEP word is a 10-bit word, and 64 ALSEP words, evenly spaced in time, make up a
logical record. At 1060 bps normal data rate, the nominal duration of a logical record is
10x64/1060 = 603.77 ms.
• ALSEP word assignment: ALSEP words 1-3 (30 bits) constitute the control word consisting
of the following:
first 22 bits: sync pattern — Barker code (11100010010) and its complement
next 7 bits: frame count
last bit: mode bit – 1 for frame 1 means normal bit rate; 1 for frame 2
means slow bit rate; ALSEP ID for frames 3-5 as follows:
Station ID
11 011
12 010
14 110
15 011
16 001
ALSEP words 4-64 contain the data as follows
Words Frames Data
all even except 2, 46, 56* all short-period vertical (SPZ)
9, 25, 41, 57 all long-period X (LPX)
11, 27, 43, 59 all long-period Y (LPY)
13, 29, 45, 61 all long-period Z (LPZ)
33 all housekeeping
35 even tidal X (TDX)
35 odd tidal Z (TDZ)
37 even tidal Y (TDY)
37 odd instrument temperature
46 all command verification
*also excepting ALSEP word 24 for station 15
• Each 10-bit seismic data word is an unsigned integer with an offset of 512.
• Each tape ends with double end-of-file marks.
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Normal-Bit-Rate Work Tapes
• One file for each original 9-track copy Work tape
• Files are generally ordered chronologically, with some exceptions. Some files skipped in the
initial processing are found at the end of the last tape of the series (WT-N-21).
• Record size: 16 bytes for headers; 5760 bytes for data; variable-length format
• Each file consists of two (occasionally one) 16-byte headers followed by 5760-byte data
records. Each file is usually, but not always, terminated by a NASA end-of-file record (a
data record with all hexadecimal 1's) and a regular end-of-file mark.
• Each data record contains 60 logical records (frames) of data of 96 bytes each.
• Header format:
Bytes Information (16-bit integers except for last 6 bytes)
1-2 3 to identify Normal-Bit-Rate Work tape
3-4 active station code 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 for Apollo 12, 15, 16, 14 and 17 stations,
respectively, placed in consecutive 3-bit positions starting at the second most
significant bit. The most significant bit is not used.
5-6 number of active stations
7-8 original 9-track tape ID number (7001 through 8109)
9-10 year
11-14 and first 4 bits of byte 15 time of the year of the first data in msec, 36-bit integer
Remaining bits of byte 15 and byte 16 not used
• Data format: In each logical record,
Long Word Bits Data
1 0 a flag bit indicating usage of computer-generated time code
1 1-31 31 msb of 35-bit time of the year in ms
2 0-3 4 lsb of 35-bit time of the year in ms
2 4-7 ALSEP tracking station ID
2 8-10 ALSEP package ID
2 11-15 bit synchronizer status: bit 11=search; bit 12=verify; bit
13=confirm; bit 14=lock; bit 15=input level
2 16-31 original 7-track record number (first subframe only)
3-24 0-9 ALSEP words 1, 4, 7, 10, 13, 16, 19, 22, 25, 28, 31, 34, 37, 40, 43,
46, 49, 52, 55, 58, 61, 64
3-23 11-20 ALSEP words 2, 5, 8, 11, 14, 17, 20, 23, 26, 29, 32, 35, 38, 41, 44,
47, 50, 53, 56, 59, 62
3-23 22-31 ALSEP words 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18, 21, 24, 17, 30, 33, 36, 39, 42, 45,
48, 51, 54, 57, 60, 63
3-23 10, 21 not used
24 10-31 not used
• ALSEP word assignment: For PSE data, see preceding page; for other experiments, see
appropriate NASA Apollo Project documents [e.g., Apollo Scientific Experiments Data
Handbook by Lauderdale and Eichelman, NASA Technical Memorandum TM X-58131,
1974].
• Each tape ends with double end-of-file marks.
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High-Bit-Rate Work tapes
• One file for each original 9-track copy Work tape
• Files are generally in chronological order, with some exceptions. A few files skipped in the
initial processing are found at the end of the last tape of the series (WT-H-7).
• Record size: 16 bytes for headers; 5760 bytes for data; variable-length format
• Each file consists of two (occasionally one) 16-byte headers followed by 5760-byte data
records. Each file is usually, but not always, terminated by a NASA end-of-file record (a
data record with all hexadecimal 1's) and a regular end-of-file mark.
• Each data record contains 20 logical records (frames) of 288 bytes each, and each frame
contains 3 subframes of 96 bytes each.
• Header format:
Bytes Information (16-bit integers except for last 6 bytes)
1-2 4 to identify High-Bit-Rate Work tape
3-4 active station code 5 for Apollo 17 stations
5-6 number of active stations (=1)
7-8 original 9-track tape ID number (6001 through 6336)
9-10 year
11-14 and first 4 bits of byte 15: time of the year of the first data in msec, 36-bit integer
Remaining bits of byte 15 and byte 16: not used
• Data format: In each subframe,
Long Word Bits Data
1 0 a flag bit indicating usage of computer-generated time code
1 1-31 31 msb of 35-bit time of the year in ms
2 0-3 4 lsb of 35-bit time of the year in ms
2 4-7 ALSEP tracking station ID
2 8-10 ALSEP package ID =5
2 11-15 bit synchronizer status: bit 11=search; bit 12=verify; bit
13=confirm; bit 14=lock; bit 15=input level
2 16-31 original 7-track record number (first subframe only)
3-22 0-29 20 LSPE data words
3-22 30-31 not used
23-24 0-31 not used
• At 3533 bps data rate, the nominal duration of a subframe is 30x20/3533 = 169.83 ms.
• LSPE bit assignment: See appropriate NASA Apollo Project documents for assignment of
bits within each subframe of 20 30-bit LSPE data words and logarithmic compression used
for the geophone signals [e.g., Apollo Scientific Experiments Data Handbook by Lauderdale
and Eichelman, NASA Tech. Memo. TM X-58131, 1974, Sec. 23].
• Each tape ends with double end-of-file marks.