POGO
OGO-2, -4, and -6 data on CD-ROM
The Geomagnetics Group at the Goddard Space Flight Center has completed
a project to merge the magnetics data from the Polar Orbiting Geophysical
Observatory (OGO 2, 4, 6 otherwise known as POGO) with the ephemeris data.
This important source of scalar data for geophysicists modeling the Earth's
magnetic field has been previously available only in highly decimated form,
or for specific local times or geographic regions. The low-Earth, polar-orbiting
OGOs collected data from all local times, in contrast to Magsat which collected
data from only two local times. Magsat however, carried vector magnetometers
in addition to a scalar magnetometer.
The POGO data is available from October 1965 to April 1971. These scalar
measurements were taken with a rubidium vapor magnetometer at the end of
a 6 m boom and were part of a larger satellite with several other experiments
on board. Some characteristics of the satellite orbits are listed below:
|
Satellite
|
Launch
|
Inclination
|
Perigee
|
Apogee
|
|
OGO 2
|
Oct. 14, 1965
|
87.3 deg
|
410 km
|
1510 km
|
|
OGO 4
|
Jul. 28, 1967
|
86.0 deg
|
410 km
|
910 km
|
|
OGO 6
|
Jun. 5, 1969
|
82.0 deg
|
400 km
|
1100 km
|
OGO 2 collected data until October 2, 1967. Due to an early failure
in the attitude control system, the data are limited to dusk local times
when the orbit was in full sunlight. OGO 4 collected data almost continuously
until January 19, 1969. OGO 6 operated almost continuously until August
29, 1970 then sporadically until June 1971, although the latest data included
are for April 26, 1971. OGO 2 and 4 sampled data at a rate of .5 seconds,
and OGO 6 collected data every .288 seconds. The error associated with
the POGO data from all known sources was determined to be 5.63 nT.
With reconstructed programs, the entire set of POGO Encyclopedia data
has been merged with the ephemeris data by the Geomagnetics Group, and
is now available on 10 CDROMs (actually 10 CD-Recordable disks) from the
National Space Science Data Center (NSSDC) at NASA's Goddard Space Flight
Center. The data consist of time, latitude, longitude, altitude, and scalar
magnitude of the magnetic field.
DO NOT CONTACT THE GEOMAGNETICS GROUP FOR THE CDROMs. WE ARE NOT
EQUIPPED TO HANDLE THESE REQUESTS.
NSSDC uses the following Data Set IDs for the three components of this
set of POGO Encyclopedia Data with Ephemeris:
| NSSDC ID |
Spacecraft |
Comments |
| 65-081A-05I |
OGO 2 |
1 CD; 371 MB in 4 files |
| 67-073A-06B |
OGO 4 |
3 CDs; 1189 MB in 11 files |
| 69-051A-21A |
OGO 6 |
6 CDs; 2557 MB in 14 files |
These can be ordered now, and will soon appear in NSSDC's WWW CD-ROM
Catalog at
http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/shop/Web_store_4.0/web_store.cgi
For additional ordering information contact:
National Space Science Data Center
Code 633
Goddard Space Flight Center
Greenbelt, MD 20771
Phone: (301) 286-6695
FAX: (301) 286-1635
request@nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov
http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov
Supported by NASA RTOP 579-31-01.