The Planetary Data System Web catalog interface-another use of the Planetary Data System Data Model

Abstract

The Planetary Data System (PDS) Data Model was presented at the Twelfth IEEE Symposium on Mass Storage Systems. This data model is used to represent the metadata that describes entities within the planetary science community such as data sets, spacecraft, and targets, as well as the archive data products produced by the PDS such as images, spectra, series, and qubes. The paper describes a new use for the PDS Data Model, that of a source for generating Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) documents for access through World Wide Web (WWW) clients such as NCSA's Mosaic. The PDS data set catalog, CD-ROM jukebox volume inventories, and the Planetary Science Data Dictionary are now represented in HTML and have been put on line for access via the Internet. This new interface has caused the number of users of the PDS data set catalog and requests for information to increase dramatically. In addition, new users in the educational community, at both the high school and university levels, have been added.