CRD

Consolidated Laser Ranging Data Format (CRD)

This file format is an evolution from older formats taking into account the adoption of new technologies. The technology drivers are the increased adoption of kHz firing-rate laser and anticipated transponder missions. The former made the use of the older format with full rate data a bit cumbersome and the later had some problems with fields (some had to be created), and some were. to small to accommodate then new data.

Instead of patching the old format to accommodate for the three types of data provided, the ILRS decided to go for a a completely new format to accommodate the three data types: full rate, sampled engineering and normal points.

The file contains three sections including the header with information on the station in use, target and session, information on configuration including detector configuration and clocks and, at last, the data itself.

The GSSC supports two resource types for CRD data: SLR full rate data (.frd) and SLR Normal point data (.npt).

The latest version of the Standard can be found here. This version (v2.01) superseded v1.01 in the 1st of August 2022.

Example Code to read/write and manipulate CRD files can be found here.