CKBRIEF User's Guide

Last revised on 2005 NOV 08 by B. V. Semenov.

Abstract

CKBRIEF is a command-line program that summarizes the pointing coverage for one or more CK files.

Summary

CKBRIEF is a command line program that allows you to easily summarize the pointing (orientation) data coverage of one or more SPICE CK files. ``Coverage'' is used in the sense of specifying time span(s) for which orientation data are available.

Usage

CKBRIEF is run by typing the name of the program at a shell prompt.

   ckbrief [-option(s)] ck-file [ck-file ...] [sclk-file] [lsk-file]

A SPICE SCLK file must be provided if time bounds are to be displayed as SCLK strings. Both an SCLK and an LSK file must be provided if time bounds are to be displayed in UTC, DOY or ET.

The options and CK, SCLK and LSK file names may appear in any order on the command line.

Options

Any of the following options may be specified. Some options may disable other options in which case the last specified option will be used. For example if you request that coverage be displayed as ephemeris time and another option in the same command line requests UTC time then only UTC time will be displayed. We have not attempted to spell out all of the possible conflicts here, since for the most part you'd be unlikely to specify conflicting options intentionally.

-t

display results in a tabular format

-g

group together objects having the same coverage

-rel

display ID code or name of the frame relative to which orientation is available

-h

display help text

-v

display the version number of the program

-f

provide a text ``list file'' containing full path name(s) of CK file(s) to summarize and/or the names of SPICE SCLK or LSK files to use for doing time conversions. This flag is used as shown below

                   -f list_of_sources.file

-sclk

display times in spacecraft clock string format (requires SPICE SCLK file)

-dpsclk

display times in spacecraft clock double precision format (also called "spacecraft clock ticks")

-utc

display times in UTC Calendar Date format (requires SPICE SCLK and LSK files)

-utcdoy

display times in UTC Day-Of-Year format (requires SPICE SCLK and LSK files)

[obj]

create a summary for the specified object. Here "obj" is the NAIF ID integer code of a spacecraft, instrument or structure. Note that CKBRIEF assumes that NAIF ID codes for a spacecraft, instrument or structure are negative integer numbers. (Don't include the square brackets)

-nm

("no merge") causes the program to display a separate record for each segment in the CK file, even when segments overlap

-dump

causes the program to display a separate record for each interpolation interval in each segment of every CK file; overrides options -g, [obj] and -nm

If none of the options specifying output time display type ("-sclk", "-dpsclk", "-utc", "-utcdoy") is specified, the times are displayed as Ephemeris Time (ET) in Calendar date format.

The name(s) of CK file(s) to be summarized and the LSK and SCLK files required to support time conversions must be provided on the command line, or in a list file, the name of which must be provided on the command line following the "-f" key. The names provided in a list file may each be on a separate line, or multiple names per line separated by spaces, or mixture of these two cases.

CKBRIEF will NOT display the time if needed SCLK, or SCLK and LSK, files were not provided.

CKBRIEF will inform the user of any incorrect option, incorrect file name, or incorrect file type specified on the command line.