ISIS 2 Documentation

ISIS Distribution and Support Policies

ISIS Distribution: The ISIS system is freely distributed to the NASA science community and other interested users. The ISIS distribution contains the necessary binary executable modules, user documentation, and ancillary data necessary to perform spectral processing and radiometric, geometric, photometric, and cartographic image processing in support of NASA flight projects including Viking, Voyager, Magellan, Galileo/NIMS, Galileo/SSI, Cassini, Clementine, Imager for Mars Pathfinder, Lunar Orbiter, Mars Exploration Rover (MER) Mars Express, Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) and THEMIS. The ISIS distribution also contains the ISIS source code and information on writing your own specialized ISIS applications.
ISIS Support Categories:

Fully Supported Institutions: Investigator institutions directly involved with NASA programs that fund the development and maintenance of the ISIS system (such as Galileo/NIMS, Clementine) are "fully" supported. Fully supported institutions will receive 1) ISIS distribution updates, 2) ISIS installation assistance, 3) user assistance, 4) timely action on bug reports, and 5) limited programmer assistance (perhaps including programmer workshops) . It is essential that the cognizant USGS/PI (USGS individual directly responsible to the NASA program that funds ISIS development) identify those institutions to receive full ISIS support.
Unsupported Institutions: Science community members not directly involved with NASA programs that fund ISIS are supported on a "best effort" basis. Support is provided within a narrow scope of USGS budget constraints and programmer resources. Any use of ISIS by unsupported institutions is done so at their own risk. Unsupported users will receive ISIS distribution updates and they are encouraged to report bugs and problems with the ISIS system. However, timely response to bug reports and responses to other support questions may not be possible.

For more information on ISIS support, see the Policy on Support for External ISIS Users, which describes support for users who are using the distributed ISIS software and the Policy on ISIS Programming, which describes support for users who are writing their own specialized ISIS applications.
User Registration: It is no longer necessary to register to receive the ISIS system. However, it is recommended that you register for ISIS support at the Isis Support Center (URL: http://isis.astrogeology.usgs.gov/IsisSupport/). Registered users will be periodically informed of system updates and changes to the system.
System Requirements: ISIS has been developed and tested to operate under specific hardware and operating system environments. User support can be provided only to those institutions that have the same hardware systems with identical operating systems (including specific operating system version or higher) and development tools such as IDL. For those who desire to write their own ISIS application programs, identical compilers and program development tools must be used in ISIS development activities at their institutions. Every attempt will be made to adapt ISIS to a higher version of an operating system, but no guarantee can be made that ISIS will operate on systems other than the versions supported by the USGS group.
Hardware Requirements: ISIS is a very powerful and complicated system requiring significant computer resources. A minimum hardware configuration is required in order to properly operate ISIS. User support can be provided only to those institution that maintain computer systems that meet the minimum hardware requirements.
Major Releases and Intermediate Updates: ISIS software updates are available via"rsync". "rsync" is a file transport tool that is similar to both "ftp" and "rcp". For information and instructions on the use of "rsync" to acquire or update ISIS see:

Installation Guide

Major releases constitute fundemental overhauls of the ISIS system. Intermediate software updates provide a rapid response to time critical operations such as might occur during an active flight project.
Distribution Installation Options: ISIS is distributed in parts so that users can tailor the system for their unique processing requirements. Ancillary data files within ISIS, such as SPICE kernels and calibration files, are very large and require significant magnetic disk storage. The ISIS system is distributed in such a way as to allow the user to load only the ancillary data files that are relevant to their investigations. The parts of the ISIS distribution include: 1) executable modules, system modules of the ISIS system, the Transportable Applications Executive user interface system, and the required data files (Base Kit); 2) ancillary data files for each mission (Mission specific Kits); and 3) software source code (Dev kit).

Documentation | Tutorials | Technical Documents | Isis Support Center (URL: http://isis.astrogeology.usgs.gov/IsisSupport/) | Home

Last updated: