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:

Field	Format	Description
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):

Field	Format	Description
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)