Radio Occultation Data of Uranus

Description

This data set consists of time samples of the signal voltage recorded at three DSN antennas in Australia during observations of the Voyager 2 spacecraft as it passed behind Uranus and its rings on January 24-25, 1986. Data were obtained at both 3.6 cm (x-band) and 13 cm (s-band) wavelengths. Data rates were 50,000 8-bit samples per second at two antennas and 80,000 at the third. In this data set, values are provided at two stages of processing. In the first stage, the data volume has been reduced by a factor of 8, but with no loss of science content. In the second, the spacecraft signal has been moved to the center of the retained frequency passband, and the data volume has been reduced by a further factor of 8. Accompanying documentation (1) describes in detail the stages of processing through which the data have passed, (2) describes the data format, (3) provides inventories of the data from each antenna, (4) lists significant events during data acquisition, (5) provides gain-correction algorithms for mispointing of both the spacecraft and DSN antennas, (6) discusses a method for correcting frequency drift caused by Doppler and relativistic effects, and (7) discusses the encounter geometry during the period of the ring ocultations. Most of this documentation is available in both hard copy and machine-readable format. Some explanatory material (particularly diagrams) is only in hard copy.