Data compression in end-to-end information systems for NASA space science missions

Summary form only given. The unique characteristics of compressed data have important implications to the design of space science data systems, science applications, and data compression techniques. The sequential nature of data dependence between each of the sample values within a block of compressed data introduces an error multiplication/propagation factor which compounds the effects of communication errors. The data communication characteristics of the on-board data acquisition, storage and telecommunication channels may influence the size of the compressed blocks and the frequency of included re-initialization points. On the ground, there exist key trade-off issues associated with the distribution and management of the science data products when data compression techniques are applied in order to alleviate the constraints imposed by ground communication bandwidth and data storage capacity