Data Set Overview  :   This data set contains Calibrated data taken by New Horizons  Student Dust Counter  instrument during the PLUTO mission phase.   The mission of the SDC is to analyze the size and distribution of  Interplanetary Dust Particles (IDPs) along the New Horizons  trajectory to the Kuiper Belt. SDC comprises twelve thin, permanently  polarized polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) plastic film sensors, with a  combined area of about 0.1 m**2, mounted on the top surface of a  support panel and normal to the spacecraft ram direction (flight  velocity). In addition, there are two reference sensors, identical to  the top surface sensors, mounted on the back side of the detector  support panel and protected from any dust impacts, used to monitor  background noise levels.   An impacting IDP causes a depolarization charge when it penetrates  the PVDF film on one of the sensors. That charge is then measured by  that sensor's electronics (channel); if the measurement is above a  preset level, the instrument records and stores the event for later  downlink. The level preset is adjusted based on in-flight Noise Floor  Calibrations, and there are extensive autonomy rules adjusting SDC  behavior, even turning channels off for up to thirty days at a time,  to avoid overloading the storage system with noise.   SDC was designed to detect events for particles down to about one  picogram at Pluto [BAGENALETAL2016]; that detection limit is lower  than earlier in the mission where the spacecraft velocity was higher.  The SDC instrument has a temperature- and velocity-dependent  calibration, first converting the raw measurement to charge, then  converting charge to particle mass.   The common data product is a binary table of downlinked event data:  time; sensor channel; magnitude; threshold magnitude. Associated data  products are housekeeping data such as instrument temperatures for  calibration and near-in-time spacecraft thruster events, which may  induce false positives i.e. SDC events not caused by IDPs. The  channels in the binary table for raw data are numbered from 0 to 13;  the channel in the binary table for calibrated data are numbered from  1 to 14.   Some time between instrument delivery to the spacecraft and launch,  the detector on one channel began exhibiting symptoms of degraded  electrical contacts to the PVDF; data from that channel (channel  number 10 in raw data; channel number 11 in calibrated data) are  still processed but should be ignored.   During the Pluto Charon Encounter mission phase starting in January,  2015, there were several sub-phases: three Approach sub-phases, (AP1,  AP2 and AP3); a CORE sequence for the Pluto flyby on 14.July, 2015 (Day  Of Year 195), sometimes also referred to as NEP (Near-Encounter Phase);  three Departure sub-phases (DP1, DP2, DP3). For this third and final  SDC delivery for the Pluto mission phase, this data set includes all  SDC data through the end of the Pluto mission phase in late-October,  2016, including all encounter data.   SDC was turned on throughout Approach. It was powered off then on  periodically when needed for spacecraft power reasons or for trajectory  correction maneuvers, and the channels were turned off and on around  the start of DSN tracks that contained tweakups, as per normal  operations. The thresholds were updated and set higher for Pluto -  making SDC less sensitive to dust hits - on January 1st, 2015 (DOY  001), then set back to Cruise threshold settings on July 30th (DOY  211). The threshold used for each dust hit is recorded in extension 1  of the calibrated data products. A Stimulus calibration was performed  on July 08, 2016.   During the five days before and after the Pluto flyby, SDC detected  one probable dust hit event. The event happened on July 11, three days  prior to Pluto closest approach, at a distance of ~3000 Pluto radii.  Refer to figure 6 of Bagenal et al. (2016) [BAGENALETAL2016] for more  details.   Every observation provided in this data set was taken as a part of a  particular sequence. A list of these sequences has been provided in  file DOCUMENT/SEQ_SDC_PLUTO.TAB.  N.B. Some sequences provided may have no corresponding observations.   For a list of observations, refer to the data set index table. This  is typically INDEX.TAB initially in the INDEX/ area of the data set.  There is also a file SLIMINDX.TAB in INDEX/ that summarizes key  information relevant to each observation, including which sequence  was in effect and what target was likely intended for the  observation.    Version  :   This is VERSION 3.0 of this data set.   General statement about data set versions after V1.0  ----------------------------------------------------  The pipeline (see Processing below) was re-run on these data for each  version since the first (V1.0). That will typically change only the  FITS headers but not the FITS data of raw data sets. In some cases  this may change the calibration because the calculated geometry of an  observation has changed. See data set version-specific sections below  for significant exceptions to this general statement, i.e. changes to  pipeline processing, calibration processing, and data delivered.   An all-instrument Calibration Campaign occurred in July 2016. For all  instruments, calibrations were updated as of April 2017 which changed  the data in the calibrated data sets. Calibration changes are described  in the data set version-specific sections.   Note that even if this is not a calibrated data set, calibration  changes are listed as the data will have been re-run and there will be  updates to the calibration files, to the documentation (Science  Operations Center - Instrument Interface Control Document:  SOC_INST_ICD) and to the steps required to calibrate the data.     SDC updates for Pluto Encounter  Data Sets V3.0  :   This P3 Pluto Encounter dataset release provides updates to the Pluto  dataset between P2 (data on the ground by 1/31/2016) and P3 (data on  on the ground by the end of the Pluto mission phase in late October,  2016); this completes the SDC Pluto data set. Since the P2 delivery  data, SDC has stayed on and taken data continuously, however, see the  comment regarding tweakups in the V2.0 updates below. A Stim  calibration was performed on 07/08/2016.   Also, updates were made to the documentation and catalog files,  primarily to implement suggestions from the V2.0 peer review. A new  table of SDC Ram (velocity) ancillary data has been provided, and the  SDC on/off and Stim tables have been extended in time to cover the new  data.     SDC updates for Pluto Encounter  Data Sets V2.0  :   This P2 Pluto Encounter dataset release provides updates to the  Pluto dataset between P1 (data on the ground by 7/31/2015) and P2  (data on the ground by 1/31/2016). All liens from the initial  Pluto delivery have also now been resolved. For SDC, most of the  Pluto Encounter data was downlinked in the 15229 load in August  2015. Since then, SDC has stayed on and taken data continuously,  however due to power restrictions it has frequently been turned  off anytime there was a downlink of SSR Side 2 data. The channels  are also turned off and on around the start of certain DSN tracks,  occurring about every 3 days (these tracks are known as tweakups).    Processing  :   The data in this data set were created by a software data  processing pipeline on the Science Operations Center (SOC) at  the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI), Department of Space Operations. This SOC pipeline assembled data as FITS files from raw telemetry  packets sent down by the spacecraft and populated the data labels  with housekeeping and engineering values, and computed geometry  parameters using SPICE kernels. The pipeline did not resample  the data.   SDC data calibration is a two-step process: raw data numbers from a  particle impact are converted to a charge, and the charge is  converted to a particle mass via the ground calibrations obtained at  a dust acceleration facility. Refer to the provided documentation  for more information. The latest calibration procedure is described  in James et al., (2010) [JAMESETAL2010].    Data  :   The observations in this data set are stored in data files using  standard Flexible Image Transport System (FITS) format. Each FITS  file has a corresponding detached PDS label file, named according  to a common convention. The FITS files may have image and/or table  extensions. See the PDS label plus the DOCUMENT files for a  description of these extensions and their contents.   This Data section comprises the following sub-topics:   - Filename/Product IDs  - Instrument description  - Other sources of information useful in interpreting these Data  - Visit Description, Visit Number, and Target in the Data Labels    Filename/Product IDs  --------------------   The filenames and product IDs of observations adhere to a  common convention e.g.   SDC_0123456789_0X700_ENG.FIT  ^^^ ^^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^^ ^^^\__/  | | | | ^^  | | | | |  | | | | +--File type (includes dot)  | | | | - .FIT for FITS file  | | | | - .LBL for PDS label  | | | | - not part of product ID  | | | |  | | | +--ENG for CODMAC Level 2 data  | | | SCI for CODMAC Level 3 data  | | |  | | +--Application ID (ApID) of the telemetry data  | | packet from which the data come  | | N.B. ApIDs are case-insensitive  | |  | +--MET (Mission Event Time) i.e. Spacecraft Clock  |  +--Instrument designator    Note that, depending on the observation, the MET in the data filename  and in the Product ID may be similar to the Mission Event Time (MET)  of the actual observation acquisition, but should not be used as an  analog for the acquisition time. The MET is the time that the data are  transferred from the instrument to spacecraft memory and is therefore  not a reliable indicator of the actual observation time. The PDS label  and the index tables are better sources to use for the actual timing of  any observation. The specific keywords and index table column names for which to look are   * START_TIME  * STOP_TIME  * SPACECRAFT_CLOCK_START_COUNT  * SPACECRAFT_CLOCK_STOP_COUNT   Also note that a dust hit may be recorded in more than one data  product. The product name reflects the MET when data was tranferred  from instrument memory. More than one transfer may have been requested  for any given interval from START_TIME to STOP_TIME. When processing  the data, check these intervals carefully.    Instrument Instrument designators ApIDs **  : : :  SDC SDC 0X700   * Not all values in this range are in this data set  ** ApIDs are case insensitive   There are other ApIDs that contain housekeeping values and  other values. See SOC Instrument ICD (/DOCUMENT/SOC_INST_ICD.*)  for more details.    Here is a summary of the types of files generated by each ApID  (N.B. ApIDs are case-insensitive) along with the instrument  designator that go with each ApID:    ApIDs Data product description/Prefix(es)  : :  0x700 - SDC Science Data/SDC    Instrument description  ----------------------   Refer to the following files for a description of this instrument.   CATALOG   SDC.CAT   DOCUMENTS   SDC_SSR.*  SOC_INST_ICD.*  NH_SDC_V###_TI.TXT (### is a version number)    Other sources of information useful in interpreting these Data  --------------------------------------------------------------   Refer to the following files for more information about these data   NH Trajectory tables:   /DOCUMENT/NH_MISSION_TRAJECTORY.* - Heliocentric   SDC Field Of View definitions:   /DOCUMENT/NH_FOV.*  /DOCUMENT/NH_SDC_V###_TI.TXT     Visit Description, Visit Number, and Target in the Data Labels  ---------------------------------------------------------------   The observation sequences were defined in Science Activity Planning  (SAP) documents, and grouped by Visit Description and Visit Number.  The SAPs are spreadsheets with one Visit Description & Number per row.  A nominal target is also included on each row and included in the data  labels, but does not always match with the TARGET_NAME field's value in  the data labels. In some cases, the target was designated as RA,DEC  pointing values in the form ``RADEC:123.45,-12.34'' indicating Right  Ascension and Declination, in degrees, of the target from the  spacecraft in the Earth Equatorial J2000 inertial reference frame.  This indicates either that the target was either a star, or that the  target's ephemeris was not loaded into the spacecraft's attitude and  control system which in turn meant the spacecraft could not be pointed  at the target by a body identifier and an inertial pointing value had  to be specified as Right Ascension and Declination values. PDS-SBN  practices do not allow putting a value like RADEC:... in the PDS  TARGET_NAME keyword's value. In those cases the PDS TARGET_NAME value  is set to CALIBRATION. TARGET_NAME may be N/A (Not Available or Not  Applicable) for a few observations in this data set; typically that  means the observation is a functional test so N/A is an appropriate  entry for those targets, but the PDS user should also check the  NEWHORIZONS:OBSERVATION_DESC and NEWHORIZONS:SEQUENCE_ID keywords in  the PDS label, plus the provided sequence list (see Ancillary Data  below) to assess the possibility that there was an intended target.  These two keywords are especially useful for STAR targets as often  stars are used as part of instrument calibrations, and are  included as part of the sequencing description which is captured  in these keywords.     Ancillary Data  :   The geometry items included in the data labels were computed  using the SPICE kernels archived in the New Horizons SPICE  data set, NH-X-SPICE-6-PLUTO-V1.0.   Every observation provided in this data set was taken as a part of a  particular sequence. A list of these sequences has been provided in  file DOCUMENT/SEQ_SDC_PLUTO.TAB. In addition, the  sequence identifier (ID) and description are included in the PDS label  for every observation. N.B. While every observation has an associated  sequence, every sequence may not have associated observations. Some  sequences may have failed to execute due to spacecraft events (e.g.  safing). No attempt has been made during the preparation of this data  set to identify such empty sequences, so it is up to the user to  compare the times of the sequences to the times of the available  observations from INDEX/INDEX.TAB to identify such sequences.    Time  :   There are several time systems, or units, in use in this dataset:  New Horizons spacecraft MET (Mission Event Time or Mission Elapsed  Time), UTC (Coordinated Universal Time), and TDB Barycentric  Dynamical Time.   This section will give a summary description of the relationship  between these time systems. For a complete explanation of these  time systems the reader is referred to the documentation  distributed with the Navigation and Ancillary Information  Facility (NAIF) SPICE toolkit from the PDS NAIF node, (see  http://naif.jpl.nasa.gov/).   The most common time unit associated with the data is the spacecraft  MET. MET is a 32-bit counter on the New Horizons spacecraft that  runs at a rate of about one increment per second starting from a  value of zero at   19.January, 2006 18:08:02 UTC   or   JD2453755.256337 TDB.   The leapsecond adjustment (DELTA_ET : ET - UTC) was 65.184s at  NH launch, and the first three additional leapseconds occurred  in at the ends of December, 2009, June, 2012 and June, 2015.  Refer to the NH SPICE data set, NH-J/P/SS-SPICE-6-V1.0, and the  SPICE toolkit documentation, for more details about leapseconds.   The data labels for any given product in this dataset usually  contain at least one pair of common UTC and MET representations  of the time at the middle of the observation. Other portions  of the products, for example tables of data taken over periods  of up to a day or more, will only have the MET time associated  with a given row of the table.   For the data user's use in interpreting these times, a reasonable  approximation (+/- 1s) of the conversion between Julian Day (TDB)  and MET is as follows:   JD TDB : 2453755.256337 + ( MET / 86399.9998693 )   For more accurate calculations the reader is referred to the  NAIF/SPICE documentation as mentioned above.    Reference Frame  :    Geometric Parameter Reference Frame  -----------------------------------   Earth Mean Equator and Vernal Equinox of J2000 (EMEJ2000) is the  inertial reference frame used to specify observational geometry items  provided in the data labels. Geometric parameters are based on best  available SPICE data at time of data creation.    Epoch of Geometric Parameters  -----------------------------   All geometric parameters provided in the data labels were computed at  the epoch midway between the START_TIME and STOP_TIME label fields.     Software  :   The observations in this data set are in standard FITS format  with PDS labels, and can be viewed by a number of PDS-provided  and commercial programs. For this reason no special software is  provided with this data set.    Contact Information  :   For any questions regarding the data format of the archive,  contact   New Horizons SDC Principal Investigator:   Mihaly Horanyi, LASP, University of Colorado   Mihaly Horanyi   Laboratory for Atmospheric  and Space Physics  University of Colorado  Boulder, CO 80302-0392  USA

Confidence Level Overview  :  During the processing of the data in preparation for  delivery with this volume, the packet data associated with each  observation were used only if they passed a rigorous verification  process including standard checksums.   In addition, raw (Level 2) observation data for which adequate  contemporary housekeeping and other ancillary data are not available  may not be reduced to calibrated (Level 3) data. This issue is raised  here to explain why some data products in the raw data set,   NH-P-SDC-2-PLUTO-V3.0,   may not have corresponding data products in the calibrated data set,   NH-P-SDC-3-PLUTO-V3.0.    Data coverage and quality  :  Every observation provided in this data set was taken as a part of a  particular sequence. A list of these sequences has been provided in  file DOCUMENT/SEQ_SDC_PLUTO.TAB. N.B. Some sequences  provided may have zero corresponding observations.   Refer to the Confidence Level Overview section above for a summary  of steps taken to assure data quality.   For SDC, the stimulus calibration activity is known to generate  false positive events in the science data. This data set includes  a PDS TABLE, DOCUMENT/SDC_STIM_Vnnnn.TAB, that lists time periods  when stimulus calibrations were active (several times during  Launch and Jupiter mission phases, and about half an hour per  year during Annual CheckOuts (ACO) in the Pluto Cruise mission  phase. Eventually, the Science Operations Center (SOC)  operational pipeline may be enhanced to filter individual events  that occur near stimulus events.    Observation descriptions in this data set catalog  :   Some users will expect to find descriptions of the observations  in this data set here, in this Confidence Level Note. This data  set follows the more common convention of placing those  descriptions under the Data Set Description (above, if the user is  reading this in the DATASET.CAT file) of this data set catalog.    Caveat about TARGET_NAME in PDS labels and observational intent  :   The downlink team on New Horizons has  created an automated system to take various uplink products, decode  things like Chebyshev polynomials in command sequences representing  celestial body ephemerides for use on the spacecraft to control  pointing, and infer from those data what the most likely intended  target was at any time during the mission. This works well during  flyby encounters and less so during cruise phases and hibernation.   The user of these PDS data needs to  be cautious when using the TARGET_NAME and other target-related  parameters stored in this data set. This is less an issue for the  plasma and particle instruments, more so for pointing instruments.  To this end, the heliocentric ephemeris of the spacecraft, the  spacecraft-relative ephemeris of the inferred target, and the  inertial attitude of the instrument reference frame are provided  with all data, in the J2000 inertial reference frame, so the user  can check where that target is in the Field Of View (FOV) of the  instrument.   Finally, note that, within the FITS headers of the data products,  the sequence tables, and other NH Project-internal documents used  in this data set and/or inserted into the data set catalog,  informal names are often used for targets instead of the canonical  names required for the TARGET_NAME keyword. For example, during  the Pluto mission phase, instead of the TARGET_NAME '15810 ARAWN  (1994 JR1)' there might be found any of the following: 1994JR1;  1994 JR1; JR1. For all values where the PDS keyword TARGET_NAME  is used (e.g. in PDS labels and in index tables), the canonical,  PDS-approved names are used (if not, please bring this to the  attention of PDS so it can be rectified). However, within the  context of this data set, these project abbreviations are not  ambiguous (e.g. there is only one NH target with 'JR1' in its  name), so there has been, and will be, no attempt to expand such  abbreviations where they occur outside formal PDS keyword values.    Review  :  This dataset was peer reviewed and certified for scientific use on  June 19, 2017.