Archived File Names

The ESPO archives use a standard naming convention for all archived files. The file names are coded to maximize the information in each name, and all names contain a two-character prefix followed by an eight-digit date (yyyyMMdd), and terminate with a "." (period) followed by some extension. Some names include optional information between the date and extension. The extension on data file names designates the source or association of the data, whereas for the image files, it designates the image file format.

A complete description of the file naming convention is contained in either of the following documents:

File Catalogs

The docs directory in each archive account contains catalogs indicating the names and subjects for all data and image files which have been reserved for use in that archive. The data file catalog is called datatable.html and the image file catalog is called imagetable.html. Plain text versions of the file catalogs are also included in the docs directory.

Each file catalog consists of four columns indicating the file name code, subdirectory, point of contact and a brief description of the contents or subject of each type of file.

  1. File name codes are constructed from the constant parts of the file name, as described in filenames, and are merely a convenient way to reference a particular type of file.
  2. The subdirectory containing (or expected to contain) the files is relative to the data directory for data files, and relative to the images directory for image files.
  3. The point of contact (POC) for each type of file is the person responsible for generating the files and answering questions about those files. That person is often the PI, but can be another member of the PI's team. Data file headers often include contact information for the POC. Contact the curator of this web site if you are unable to locate the indicated contact.
  4. File descriptions are necessarily brief, but hopefully adequate to determine whether or not a particular type of file is of interest to you.

How to Find Archived Files

If you are unfamiliar with the files in a particular archive then it is best to browse to the docs directory of that archive and examine the file catalogs. If you are looking for data files then examine datatable.html, or use imagetable.html if you are looking for images. Then scan the content descriptions until you find an interesting one, and note the file code and subdirectory for that type of file. You can then browse to the appropriate directory and view the files to make sure they are the ones you want.

Or, you may just be interested in locating a particular type of measurement, and want to see if any of the archives include that measurement. In that case, try the Search Data Files operation to search any or all archives for keywords or regular expressions.

Contact the curator of this site if you are unable to find the data you desire.

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Curator: Steven Gaines  -  NASA Official: Mike Craig
Updated: 2005-10-17