Cassini UVIS Data Product Enhancement

This NASA PDART project upgrades the existing Cassini UVIS data products into a modern, science-ready format. The PI is Matt Tiscareno at the SETI Institute; I serve as external consultant and continue to lead most project activities from FU Berlin.

Objectives

The limited content and inconvenient format of published Cassini Ultraviolet Imaging Spectrograph (UVIS) data products puts a high burden on end users before scientific investigation can begin. This project produces upgraded data products in a modern format, adds all required metadata to remove the need for time-consuming geometry calculations, and performs default calibrations for the majority of data products. This benefits all aspects of UVIS science:

• stellar and solar occultations of Saturn,
• emissions from the Titan atmosphere,
• satellite reflectance,
• ring spectroscopy, and more.

Approach

We create enhanced UVIS data products by pre-calculating an expanded set of geometry parameters for each detector readout and applying a default calibration that varies with the observational scenario. The additional metadata is included with the original instrument data in PDS4-compatible FITS files. Python and IDL tools are provided for data access, analysis, and plotting.

Current status

The project is in its third year. Current work focuses on:

• FITS metadata definition and automation
• The UVIS User Guide — comprehensive documentation for working with the enhanced data products
• Calibration pipeline refinement and validation