MER Raw Image Naming System - revisited

mlm (a while ago) wrote:

Can anyone shed light on the naming system JPL uses for their raw image
filenames? This is what I have figured out on my own:

Eg: 2 P 126553081 ESF 0200 P 2100 L6 M1 .JPG

2 = MER-2 (Spirit aka MER-A)

P = Pancam

9-digit decimal number = seconds since Jan 1, 2000
so: '126553081' would be 4-Jan-04 17:36. (4 hours slow though ??)

ESF/EFF/EDS = ? -- I note EFF is the predominant type; files are larger

4-digit decimal number = ? ('0200' in this case)

P = ?

4-digit decimal number = ? ('2100' in this case)

L = Left 'eye'
6 = Filter number 6

As a refinement to this for anyone interested, the 9-digit decimal number
is the number of seconds after J2000 (January 1, 2000 1200 GMT)

The first DIMES image from MER-A was 126462398 making it 4:26:38 GMT on
January 4, 2004.

The first DIMES image from MER-B was 128278505 making it 4:55:05 GMT on
January 25, 2004.

How it knows, accurately, what time it currently is relative to J2000 I
am not sure. (Perhaps this info is sent from Earth during communication
sessions?)

Converting to local Mars time is another exercise.

When you stack em up in order, it is interesting to see how JPL uses the
cameras, the way they juggle pancam filters, and the time lag between
photos and from camera to camera as they change from Pan to Nav to R/F
Haz. You can also see clearly when the thing goes to bed for the night.

EFF is full frame (1024 x 1024)
EDN is downsampled (thumbnail) (Filters L5 & L6 mainly)
ESF is subframed (cropped) (Sundial and Sun images exclusively)

No idea what the two 4-digit numbers separated by the letter "P" or
sometimes "F" are. The first seems to increase steadily over the
duration of the mission so may be a command sequence ID. The second, I
have no idea -- elevation/azimuth would be cool but does not seem to be
the case. Likewise the "M1" at the end of every filename.

Any more insight?

Mark