NASAView

 

Version 2.7

 

Availability

 

The program is only available for Windows 95/98/NT/2000, SOLARIS 2.6, LINUX, and Power Mac.  It is free and can be only be obtained by downloading it from http://pdsproto.jpl.nasa.gov/Distribution/license.html or http://pds.jpl.nasa.gov/scientist.html.

 

NASAView is the property of the California Institute of Technology.  U.S. Government sponsorship under NAS7-1260 is acknowledged.  This software was developed at Jet Propulsion Laboratory, an operating division of the California Institute of Technology and is available for use by the public without need of a license.

 

The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the California Institute of Technology and the United States government retain a paid-up royalty free world wide license in this product.

                       

DISCLAIMER

 

THE SOFTWARE AND RELATED MATERIALS ARE PROVIDED \"AS-IS\" WITHOUT WARRANTY OR INDEMNITY OF ANY KIND INCLUDING ANY WARRANTIES OF USE, PERFORMANCE OR MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR USE OR PURPOSE (as set forth in UCC ''2312-2313) OR FOR ANY PURPOSE WHATSOEVER.  USER BEARS ALL RISK RELATING TO USE, QUALITY AND PERFORMANCE OF THE SOFTWARE.

 

 

Contact us by sending email to the PDS operator, (pds_operator@jpl.nasa.gov)

 

Description

            This program was written to allow the user to display and examine Planetary Data System archive products.  PDS archive products are typically data files containing an image or a table.  Each archive file must have an attached or a detached label containing PDS metadata.  For descriptions of labels refer to the PDS standards documents.  The program is not intended to display GIF, JPEG, or PNG files.  It is also not intended to be used for intensive scientific analysis of data included in the PDS archive.  There are other software packages available from the data producers to analyze the contents of these files.

 

Installation requirements

            Red Hat Linux 6.2

            Power MAC (not all of the features in this user guide are available in this version of

                                  NASAView)

            Solaris 6.8

            Windows 98/NT/2000

 

Installation instructions (also see included file install notes)

            Linux

Power MAC

MAC OSX

Solaris

Download the TAR file from the PDS website and save it to the directory from which you wish to run NASAView.  Uncompress and extract all the files from the tar file.  Make sure the directory into which you placed NASAView is in your path.  Double check that NASAView has execution privileges.  For some operations NASAView may have to write large temporary files, be sure there is room and that you have write privileges in the directory.

Windows 98/NT

Download the ZIP file from the PDS website and save it to the directory from which you wish to run NASAView.  Unzip the file and you are all set to go.  NASAView will run with no further tinkering.

           

 

Menus

 

PRIMARY MENU

 

FILE

           OPEN OBJECT

The selected file must contain a PDS label or it must be a PDS label file (*.lbl), or there must be a PDS label file (.lbl) with the same name as the selected file.  If a text file is selected it will be opened as a text file.  Image and table objects will be displayed as specified in the label.

           OPEN TEXT

                        This selection allows for displaying and editing of text files.

           OPEN MOC OBJECT

This feature allows the user to select a compressed Mars Global Surveyor MOC object for display.  The file will be decompressed and displayed.  If the decompression software encounters an error it will notify the user of the error and continue decompressing if possible, or stop and display as much of the file as was decompressed.

           MAKE A PDS LABEL

                    FOR A FITS IMAGE

The user will select a FITS file to be displayed.  NASAView will make a label for the file.  The user must save the file, then go to OPEN OBJECT and select the new label file for display.  NASAView will use the newly made label to display the FITS object.

                    FOR A RAW IMAGE

NASAView will present a template for a minimal PDS label, along with directions for completing the template.  After completion, the user must save the label.  This label can then be selected from OPEN OBJECT and the object for which the label was created will be displayed.

AUTOMATED CD BROWSE

Browse a CD or disk directory displaying all files or selected files.  Making this selection will open a window that requires the user to select a directory to browse.

 

 

Select a directory and then select OK.  This window will close and another window will be opened allowing the user to select browse options.

 

 

 

Exclusive Browse Extension

Only files having the specified extension will be displayed.  This entry is case sensitive.  If this field is left blank then the program will attempt to display all files in the specified directory.

 

Maximize Image Size

Image windows are normally opened at a preselected size.  If this option is selected the application window will be expanded to full size and the image windows will fill as much of the application window as necessary to show the full image.  If the image is too big to fit in the application window scroll bars will be used.

 

Perform Timed Browse

Selecting a timed browse allows the program to display all files that have an attached label or files, which have a detached label.  Files not meeting these criteria will skipped and the user will not be notified.  If Timed Browse is not selected, the user will be prompted to display or skip the file .

 

 

Do not browse subdirectories

The default is to display files in the selected directory and all subdirectories.  This option limits display to only the selected directory.

 

AutoStretch

Stretch tends to improve image detail.  Some images appear completely obscure until they are stretched and may show a lot of detail after stretching.  This feature will stretch each image without user intervention.

 

Enter Auto Browse Interval In Seconds, Not More Than 30 Seconds

This controls how long each image will be displayed.  The default time is 6 seconds.  An interval of up to 30 seconds is allowed.

 

Browse Now

This will cause the browse to begin.

 

Exit Browse

This will exit the browse function.

 

If the “Perform Timed Browse” is not selected one of the two manual browser control windows will be displayed.

 

 

The above window will be displayed if the file to be displayed contains a label or has a detached label associated with it.  The following options are available:

 

Display It

Display the selected file.

 

Skip It

Do not display the selected file.

 

Skip All Files With This Extension

Skip all files with the same extension as the selected file.  This is case sensitive.

 

Skip The Rest Of This Directory

Do not attempt to display any more files in this directory.  NASAView will move on to the next subdirectory if allowed or will move to the next directory.

 

Stop Browsing

This will stop the browse feature.

 

 

 

 This window will be displayed if the selected file does not have a displayable image or table associated with its label.  The following options are available:

 

Skip It

Do not display the selected file.

 

Skip All Files With This Extension

Skip all files with the same extension as the selected file.  This is case sensitive.

 

Skip The Rest Of This Directory

Do not attempt to display any more files in this directory.  NASAView will move on to the next sub directory if allowed or will move to the next directory.

 

Make A Label For This Raw Image File

NASAView will present the user with a template and directions for creating a PDS label for a raw image file.

 

Make A Label For This FITS File

NASAView will present the user with a template and directions for creating a PDS label for a FITS file.

 

Stop Browsing

This will stop the browse feature.

 

During a manual browse one of the two previous windows will be present.

 

 

The above window will be present during an auto browse, with the following options: 

 

Exit Auto Browse

This will stop the browse feature.

 

Pause

Temporarily stop the autobrowse so that a new interval can be entered.

 

Continue

Resume the autobrowse.

 

Enter Auto Browse Interval in Seconds

After selecting the pause button the user may enter a new browse interval.

 

Apply New Interval

The interval displayed in the Enter Auto Browse Interval in Seconds field will become the active browse interval.

 

 

           CLOSE

                        Close the current open file.

           SAVE GIF

Save the current image as a GIF file.  The file will have the same name as the original but will have a GIF extension.  The image that will be saved is the image in memory.  This image is not the same as the displayed image if the user has stretched or otherwise altered the image.

           SAVE GIF AS

Save the current image as a GIF file.  The user will be asked to supply a new name for the file.  The default will be the name of the original file.  The image that will be saved is the image in memory.  This image is not the same as the displayed image if the user has stretched or otherwise altered the image.

           SAVE JPEG

Save the current image as a JPEG file.  The file will have the same name as the original but will have a JPEG extension.  The image that will be saved is the image in memory.  This image is not the same as the displayed image if the user has stretched or otherwise altered the image.

           SAVE JPEG AS

Save the current image as a JPEG file.  The user will be asked to supply a new name for the file.  The default will be the name of the original file.  The image that will be saved is the image in memory.  This image is not the same as the displayed image if the user has stretched or otherwise altered the image.

           PRINT SETUP

                        Not used at this time.

           PRINT

                        Not used at this time.

           EXIT

                        Exit the program.

EDIT

            UNDO   Not available

            CUT      Delete and make a copy of selected text.

            COPY   Copy selected text.

            PASTE  Insert copied text into document.

            DELETE Delete selected text.

 

IMAGE

Except for MultiSpectrum images all images are displayed in 255 shades of gray.  An image with pixel values ranging from 0 to 254 has one shade for each value.  An image with a range from 0 to 1016 has one shade for every 4 values.  An image with a range of 0 to 101,600 has one shade for every 400 values.  If in the case of this last image the actual range was 101092 to 101600 a lot of the detail would be lost because all of the data is in the last 508 values, which would be represented by only two shades of gray.  If this image is normalized the new range is now 0 to 508.  This new range would yield one shade of gray for every 2 pixel values.  This would bring out more detail.

 

STRETCH DISPLAY

Stretching the display causes the display to be normalized that is to redistribute the pixel values of the display to completely utilize all 255 gray scale values.  The user can also use the histogram feature (see OPTIONS – View Histogram) to manually control the stretch.

            INVERT DISPLAY

This selection reverses the colors in a 256 gray scale display.

            UNDO DISPLAY

Restores the display using the memory image as a source.

 

            STRETCH IMAGE

Stretching the image causes the image in memory to be stretched and the displayed image to be stretched.  The stretched image may be saved as a jpeg or gif image. 

LABEL

            OBJECT PARAMETERS

This selection will display the keywords and keyword values for the PDS object currently being displayed.

            OBJECT HIERARCHY

This selection will display a list of PDS objects in the file being displayed. If the object has sub-objects (such as columns in a table) then those will be listed also.

            FULL LABEL

This selection will display the PDS label for the current file.

            BAND SELECTION

This selection is associated with multi spectrum images.  It allows the user to assign one band to be red, another to be blue, and one to be green.  It also allows an intensity to be specified for each of the bands.

            BAND MIN/MAX

This selection is associated with multi spectrum images.  It allows the user to stretch each band as desired.  The best results are obtained when all three bands are stretched to the same degree.

 

OPTIONS – A different set of OPTIONS is displayed depending upon the type of file open.  The

                   options listed below are for IMAGE and/or QUBE files.

            VIEW HISTOGRAM

This option is associated with IMAGE and QUBE files.  Displays a graphic display of the pixel value distribution.  There are three controls that allow adjustment of the distribution.  The top control allows the median of the data to be moved through the 256 available values of a pixel.  The second control allows the minimum value to be redefined, causing the low end of the data to be clipped.  The last control allows the maximum value to be redefined, causing the high end of the data to be clipped.   The selection column on the right allows the use to apply the following palettes: Greyscale, Red-Orange, Blue-Grey, Prism, Topo, Ramp, and Contour.

            SHOW SIDE DATA

This option is associated with QUBE files.  Displays the keywords associated with the QUBE side data.

            HIDE/SHOW QUBE CONTROLS

This option is associated with QUBE files.  This controls whether or not the QUBE CONTROL Window is visible.

            PARSE TIMES AS SECONDS

Not available in this release.  This allows table columns containing time to be shown as seconds.

            SHOW INTEGERS AS UNSIGNED HEX

Not available in this release.  This allows table columns containing integers to be displayed as unsigned hex.

             SHOW <LF> <CR>

This OPTION applies to TEXT objects only.  The default is to show carriage return/line feed characters.  These characters will be shown as <LF> and <CR> if they are present when this feature is selected.  When a file is saved the actual lf/cr will be written to the file.

FONT

                        SELECT            This option appears in the tool bar when a TEXT file is open.  It

is not yet available.

 

 

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