I am new on the forum. I am interested in finding out if there is anyone here working on a scientific data archive of nano-satellite earth observations.
I saw there are multiple threads on satellite observations, but I gather these are more to do with picking up signals from satellites rather than transforming data into information for scientific research.
I have a background in Astrophysics, and I have worked on multiple scientific archives at ESA. My last project with ESA was the Planetary Science Archive which aimed to harmonise various platenary mission data (Mars express, Cluster, Chandrayaan from India’s ISRO and so on), by validating each mission’s dataset against a meta-data dictionary. We built a tool that enabled instrument teams to build a dataset that would conform to this dictionary and that could therefore be ingested into the PSA database. Establishing such a standard enabled a set of APIs for searching/sharing/cross-referencing datasets from unrelated missions.
I am wondering if such an effort exists in the field of open-source nano-satellite observation.
Welcome to our community. Sorry for the late reply. To the point:
There are related efforts for harmonization on our side. The data we collect are available through the SatNOGS DB API, and we have an active project called Metasat in collaboration with CfA to create a metadata vocabulary to describe satellite missions and their data.
thank you for the reply. That’s very useful information.
Currently I don’t have much to share. I am exploring this area of open nano-satellite collaboration along with a colleague of mine at ESA with whom I worked on several archival projects. We are both keen to contribute with our technical and coding skills.
Is the SatNOGS DB already validating ingested data using the Metasat dictionary?
I read on the Metasat Gitlab toolkit page that the API is already integrating some Metasat concept.
Yes, you can find it in browsable and raw json-ld format in SatNOGS DB API by visiting each endpoint and choose the format by clicking the arrow next to GET button.
So I presume this data is being ingested directly from a ground station which is able to build and format the data as per the json-ld Metasat schema using a formatter/validator tool. Does the DB API provide this builder/formatter service too?
Currently ground station send data through another protocol. For the rest of data (satellites, transmitter etc) we are working on creating the appropriate API endpoint for being able to accept data on the metasat format.
