Galileo Heavy Ion Counter
Technical Documentation

Instrument

Pictures of the HIC instrument are available here:

The Heavy Ion Counter is based on the Voyager CRS instrument and is described in an instrument paper which was part of a special Galileo issue of Space Science Reviews 60, 305-315, 1992. A good overview of the HIC instrument is also available through JPL's Galileo Mission Homepage.

For more detail the technical report, Science Requirements Document, (SRL Technical Report 85-02) can be viewed. This SRD also documents the data as it comes from the instrument.

HIC Data Format

In Phase II of the mission, HIC data are compressed substantially by software in the spacecraft's central data system before being downlinked. The compressed data are described in SRL Technical Report 97-01, "HIC Collect and Compress Routine".

Galileo-HIC data are carried, along with related header information, in an Instrument Packet File (IPF). Within each IPF are several data packets, structured in the standard formatted data unit (SFDU) form, which contain the actual Galileo-HIC rate count data. Overviews of the HIC IPF and SFDU data structures are available here. Also available is a description of the older, EDR format data, used during the cruise phase of the Galileo mission. The original documentation on IPF/SFDU formats and a detailed description of the SFDU structure, both from Betsy Wilson and JPL, are also available. Raw IPFs are downloaded from the Galileo Science Vax Cluster (GLLSVC) at JPL and translated from binary data to a readable ASCII format with a tool called ipftoascii, which outputs rate and event data.

HIC Data Processing Routines

Available at the preceding link are documentation detailing the processing of HIC data from raw, binary data to finished data products such as rate plots and histograms. Also included here are documentation on the data processing tools.

Miscellaneous

For quick reference, a glossary of acronymns is available for those associated with the Galileo-HIC documentation.
Other sources of definitions include:

Back to the Homepage

Back to the Galileo HIC Homepage.

Last Revised: Tuesday 3 June, 1997