General information about SPICE SCL-kernels =========================================== In the SPICE system, the Spacecraft Clock (or SCL) -kernel contains information required to perform a mapping between Ephemeris time (ET) and spacecraft on-board time (SCLK). The spacecraft clock coefficient information contained in an SCLK file can be manipulated by a collection of subroutines to provide a transformation between Ephemeris and spacecraft on-board times. These subroutines are part of the SPICE library, the major component of the SPICE Toolkit. The routines needed are integrated into a user's application programs. For information on the SPICE toolkit and/or how to obtain it, please consult SPICE_INST.CAT and SOFT.CAT. Refer to the SCLK.REQ document provided with the Toolkit to get more information about conversion between ET and spacecraft clock times. Mars Express SCLK Files ======================= This file describes the contents of the DATA/SCLK directory of the Mars Express SPICE dataset. SCLK files are created from the information contained in the ESOC's DDID Time Correlation Packets. All SCLK files (*.TSC) contained in this directory are unix text files. In order to be used in a non-UNIX environment, they have to be converted to the appropiate end-line convention. For example, the lines have to be terminated by a combination for Windows platforms. Mars Express SCL-Kernels Contained in this Data Set =================================================== The following MARS EXPRESS SCL-kernels are provided in this data set: MEX_yymmdd_STEP.TSC This file is a SPICE spacecraft clock (SCLK) kernel containing information required for the Mars Express spacecraft on-board clock to UTC conversion. This file provides the same time information that the Time Correlation packets released via DDS, with the exception of 60 seconds before the starting time of each packet,during which the clock rate was sightly adjusted to make the correlation function continuous. This file was released on yy-mm-dd. Note that when several SCLK kernels are provided in the dataset, the most recent one supersedes all the others. Kernel File Details =================== The most detailed description of the data in an SCLK file is provided in metadata included inside the description area of the file. This information can be viewed using any text editor program. At least a basic knowledge of the SPICE system is needed in order to use this kernels. The SPICE toolkit provides versions in Fortran (SPICELIB), C (CSPICE) and IDL (icy), and the user can choose any one that suits him/her. The SPICELIB routine FURNSH, CSPICE function furnsh_c, and icy routine cspice_furnsh load a kernel file into the kernel pool as shown below. CALL FURNSH ( 'kernel_name' ) furnsh_c ( ''kernel_name'' ); cspice_furnsh, 'kernel_name' In the case when two or more files contain data overlapping in time for a given object, for binary kernels, the file loaded last takes precedence. If two (or more) text kernels assign value(s) using the '=' operator to identical keywords, the data value(s) associated with the last loaded occurrence of the keyword are used -all earlier values have been replaced with the last loaded value(s).