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Open-File Report 2009-1129

Aeromagnetic and Aeroradiometric Data for the Conterminous United States and Alaska from the National Uranium Resource Evaluation (NURE) Program of the U.S. Department of Energy

By Patricia L. Hill¹, Robert P. Kucks¹, and Dhananjay Ravat²

¹U.S. Geological Survey
²University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY

NURE Airborne Data Files and Formats

The majority of the files are organized by 1° x 2° quadrangle names. Some quadrangles are combined. Detail and regional areas can be found under (state name)_detail or (state name)_regional. Most quadrangles or areas contain four and sometimes five files. A few quadrangles have no data or just radiometric data and some regional areas have only magnetic data. Parts of Alaska were not flown. The files are:

(quad/area name)_mag.xyz   The magnetic data file

(quad/area name)_rad.xyz    The radiometric data file (often called the reduced file)

(quad/area name)_meta.txt   The metadata file. File formats are included in the metadata files and are also listed below.

(quad/area name).jpg    An image of the flight lines showing total field magnetics or, if not available, residual magnetics

(quad/area name).txt    Not always present. Gives specific information about problems encountered in the specific data file(s).

The _mag.xyz and _rad.xyz files are g-zipped ASCII text files. They can be unzipped by using WinZip or most other zip programs. After unzipping, the suffix will be changed to just .xyz. The data files are space delimited. They can be viewed in a text editor and imported into most database/spreadsheet type programs.

 

Magnetic data file format:

Each line contains data in the following format, beginning with line 1 (no header included). Note: Alaska, detail areas, and miscellaneous files do not have resmagCM4:

FieldFormatDescription
line I6 flight line number
fiducial I8 fiducial number (integer)
time I8 time (hhmmss)
day I5 Julian day flown (integer)
year I6 year flown (integer)
latitude F10.4 latitude (decimal degrees)
longitude F11.4 longitude (decimal degrees)
radalt F7.1 radar altimeter reading above ground (meters)
totmag F9.1 corrected magnetic value (nT)
resmag F9.1 residual magnetic value (nT)
diurnal F9.1 ground magnetometer value (nT)
geology A10 surficial geology beneath flight line (coded)
resmagCM4 F9.1 resmag calculated using the Comprehensive Model 4 (nT)

 

Radiometric data file format:

Each line contains data in the following format, beginning with line 1 (no header included):

FieldFormatDescription
line I6 flight line number
fiducial I8 fiducial number (integer)
time I8 time (hhmmss)
day I5 Julian day flown (integer)
year I6 year flown (integer)
latitude F10.4 latitude (decimal degrees)
longitude F11.4 longitude (decimal degrees)
radalt F7.1 radar altimeter reading above ground (meters)
resmag F9.1 residual magnetic value (nT)
geology A10 surficial geology beneath flight line (coded)
quality A8 quality flags of the radiometrics (integer)
app_K40 F9.1 apparent Potassium as Potassium 40 (percent potassium)
app_U_BI214 F9.1 apparent Uranium as Bismuth 214 (parts per million equivalent uranium)
app_Th_TL208 F9.1 apparent Thorium as Thallium 208 (parts per million equivalent thorium)
U_Th_ratio F7.1 ratio of Uranium and Thorium
U_K_ratio F7.1 ratio of Uranium and Potassium
Th_K_ratio F7.1 ratio of Thorium and Potassium
total_count F10.1 total count of radioactivity (counts/second)
atmos_BI214 F7.1 atmospheric Uranium as Bi214 (counts/second)
air_temp F8.1 air temperature (degrees Celsius)
air_press F8.1 air pressure (mmHg)

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