Automated ground data acquisition and processing system for calibration and performance assessment of the EO-1 Advanced Land Imager

Abstract

The calibration and performance assessment of the Earth Observing-1 (EO-1) Advanced Land Imager (ALI) required a ground data system for acquiring and processing ALI data. In order to meet tight schedule and budget requirements, an automated system was developed that could be run by a single operator. This paper describes the overall system and the individual Electrical Ground Support Equipment (EGSE) and computer components used. The ALI Calibration Control Node (ACCN) serves as a test executive with a single graphical user interface to the system, controlling calibration equipment and issuing data acquisition and processing requests to the other EGSE and computers. EGSE1, a custom data acquisition syste, collects ALI science data and also passes ALI commanding and housekeeping telemetry collection requests to EGSE2 and EGSE3 which are implemented on an ASIST workstation. The performance assessment machine, stores and processes collected ALI data, automatically displaying quick-look processing results. The custom communications protocol developed to interface these various machines and to automate their interactions is described, including the various modes of operation needed to support spatial, radiometric, spectral, and functional calibration and performance assessment of the ALI.