NASA Logo

NTRS

NTRS - NASA Technical Reports Server

Collections About News Help Login
Back to Results
Performance of a Discrete Wavelet Transform for Compressing Plasma Count Data and its Application to the Fast Plasma Investigation on NASA's Magnetospheric Multiscale MissionPlasma measurements in space are becoming increasingly faster, higher resolution, and distributed over multiple instruments. As raw data generation rates can exceed available data transfer bandwidth, data compression is becoming a critical design component. Data compression has been a staple of imaging instruments for years, but only recently have plasma measurement designers become interested in high performance data compression. Missions will often use a simple lossless compression technique yielding compression ratios of approximately 2:1, however future missions may require compression ratios upwards of 10:1. This study aims to explore how a Discrete Wavelet Transform combined with a Bit Plane Encoder (DWT/BPE), implemented via a CCSDS standard, can be used effectively to compress count information common to plasma measurements to high compression ratios while maintaining little or no compression error. The compression ASIC used for the Fast Plasma Investigation (FPI) on board the Magnetospheric Multiscale mission (MMS) is used for this study. Plasma count data from multiple sources is examined: resampled data from previous missions, randomly generated data from distribution functions, and simulations of expected regimes. These are run through the compression routines with various parameters to yield the greatest possible compression ratio while maintaining little or no error, the latter indicates that fully lossless compression is obtained. Finally, recommendations are made for future missions as to what can be achieved when compressing plasma count data and how best to do so.
Document ID
20150011081
Acquisition Source
Goddard Space Flight Center
Document Type
Conference Paper
Authors
Barrie, Alexander C. (Stinger Ghaffarian Technologies, Inc. (SGT, Inc.) Greenbelt, MD, United States)
Yeh, Penshu (ASRC Federal Space and Defense Greenbelt, MD, United States)
Dorelli, John C. (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD, United States)
Clark, George B. (Catholic Univ. of America Washington, DC, United States)
Paterson, William R. (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD, United States)
Adrian, Mark L. (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD, United States)
Holland, Matthew P. (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD, United States)
Lobell, James V. (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD, United States)
Simpson, David G. (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD, United States)
Pollock, Craig J. (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD, United States)
Moore, Thomas E. (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD, United States)
Date Acquired
June 18, 2015
Publication Date
April 20, 2015
Subject Category
Computer Systems
Report/Patent Number
GSFC-E-DAA-TN21243
Meeting Information
Meeting: Measurement Techniques in Solar and Space Physics
Location: Boulder, CO
Country: United States
Start Date: April 20, 2015
End Date: April 24, 2015
Sponsors: NASA Headquarters, National Science Foundation
Funding Number(s)
CONTRACT_GRANT: NNG11PL10A
CONTRACT_GRANT: NNG12CR29C
CONTRACT_GRANT: NNG13CR48C
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Public Use Permitted.
Keywords
Particles
CCSDS
Compression

Related Records

There are no records associated with this record.
No Preview Available