This is the GIMP(*) PDS plug-in for loading NASA/ESA PDS/EDR format images.

PDS/EDR format is the image format used by NASA Planetary Data System
and by ESA Planetary Science Archives. PDS images from various space
missions are available at http://pds-imaging.jpl.nasa.gov/ and
http://www.rssd.esa.int/index.php?project=PSA

With the PDS plug-in you can load for example images from these missions:
  * Mars Express HRSC
  * 2001 Mars Odyssey THEMIS EDR/RDR-QUB (RGB-loader)
  * Mars Global Surveyor MOC
  * Mars Pathfinder
  * Viking Lander

PDS-files usually have the filename-suffix ".img" or ".imq" if compressed.
Note, that this suffix is also used for other non-PDS file-formats.

The plug-in will install itself as input filter for files with the following suffixes:
img, edr, pds, red, grn, blu, bb1, bb2, bb3, ir1, ir2, ir3, sun, sur


INSTALLATION:

On Unix systems:
  gimptool-2.0 --install-bin pds

On Mac OS X (10.3 or 10.4, no Intel yet):
  Use GIMP.app from http://gimp-app.sourceforge.net/
  Enter in Terminal Window:
    cd Downloads (Downloads is the directory where you have downloaded pds_mac)
    chmod a+rx pds_mac
    cp pds_mac /Applications/Gimp.app/Contents/Resources/lib/gimp/2.0/plug-ins/

On Windows systems:
  copy the file pds.exe to the plug-ins directory
  of your GIMP installation. For example: c:\program files\gimp\lib\gimp\2.0\plug-ins\

To build this plug-in from source you need to have GTK, GLIB and
GIMP developer packages installed. Then enter:
  tar xvfz pds-*.tgz
  ./configure
  make install

The most recent source can be found on
http://registry.gimp.org/list?name=pds
http://areo.info/gimp/


USAGE:

Select image to load from GIMP File dialog and then you have the choice
depending on the PDS image type:
  * scale the color-range from 16bit to 8 or just strip off the lower byte
  * load the filter frames into one layered image or several single images

For loading Viking Lander images select only one of the .red/.grn/.blu file triplet.
The plug-in then automatically loads the other RGB frames and creates a color image.


If you have problems using the PDS loader or want to report bugs,
contact the author:
  Holger Isenberg
  web@areo.info
  http://areo.info

(*) The GIMP is the GNU Image Manipulation Program.
It is a freely distributed piece of software for such tasks as photo retouching,
image composition and image authoring.
It works on many operating systems, in many languages.
http://www.gimp.org