The PUNCH SOC correctly associated pointing metadata (left) with test-pattern images (right) downlinked from space by the PUNCH spacecraft.
This may not look like much – just a test pattern on the right, and some plots of pointing data on the left -- but it's a big deal to the PUNCH team. The Science Operations Center (SOC) is the last major subsystem of the PUNCH mission, between the CCD cameras on-orbit and the NASA Solar Data Analysis Center (SDAC) that distributes our data to, well, you.
The test pattern on the right was generated on-orbit by the PUNCH/NFI camera itself, in a test mode. It was processed through the spacecraft's complete data compression system, packetized, downloaded during a ground pass, transferred from a remote antenna site to the Mission Operations Center (MOC) in SwRI's Boulder Colorado offices, checked for errors, handed to the Science Operations Center (SOC) down the hall, unpacked and reassembled, combined with "housekeeping" data collected on-board NFI at the same time, and finally merged into a single FITS file reminiscent of our final data products, with a complete set of metadata attached. It's the first data product to be processed end-to-end through all those steps.
Shortly we'll have true calibration camera exposures: darks, LED-stimulated calibration images, and zero-exposure-time "bias" images. In about two weeks, we'll open the shutter doors and start photographing the cosmos. Exciting times!
