The Outer Planets Unified Search (OPUS) - Searching for Planetary Mission Data via the Web

The Ring-Moon Systems Node of NASA’s Planetary Data System (PDS) has provided user-friendly access to mission data for the outer planets for over a decade. Current holdings include more than 1.5 million observations of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto, and other outer solar system bodies from Cassini, Galileo, New Horizons, Voyager, and Earth-based telescopes, including the Hubble Space Telescope. Access to these observations is provided through Outer Planets Unified Search (OPUS), a modern web-based search engine that allows searching, browsing, selecting, and downloading of observation products. A key feature of OPUS is the ability to search for observations across missions and instruments in a unified way, making it easy to discover and retrieve data from various sources at the same time.

In this hands-on, interactive workshop, I will give a tour of OPUS’s features and illustrate how they can be used to find and download observations of both scientific and public interest. Attendees will be able to follow along using their own web browsers and ask real-time questions. I also invite attendees to come prepared with search scenarios that they would like to explore with the group to see how OPUS might be able to help you achieve your goals.