juliensimon/esa-mars-express-observations

ESA Mars Express Observations

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Part of a dataset collection on Hugging Face.

Dataset description

Complete observation metadata catalog from the ESA Mars Express mission -- one of the longest-running and most scientifically productive Mars orbiters. Mars Express entered Mars orbit in December 2003 and carries a suite of 8 instruments: HRSC (high-resolution stereo camera), MARSIS (subsurface radar sounder), OMEGA (mineralogy spectrometer), PFS (planetary Fourier spectrometer), SPICAM (UV/IR spectrometer), ASPERA-3 (plasma analyzer), MaRS (radio science experiment), and VMC (visual monitoring camera).

This dataset contains the full observation metadata from the ESA Planetary Science Archive (PSA), conforming to the EPN-TAP standard. Each row represents one observation or data granule, with timing, spatial coverage, instrument parameters, and access URLs.

HRSC has produced the most complete high-resolution stereo topographic map of Mars. MARSIS detected reflections consistent with liquid water beneath the south polar layered deposits. OMEGA mapped global mineralogy including phyllosilicates and sulfates constraining climatic history. The 20+ year temporal baseline captures multiple complete Martian years of atmospheric monitoring, seasonal polar cap evolution, dust storm cycles, and surface changes.

This dataset is suitable for tabular classification tasks.

Schema

Column	Type	Description	Sample	Null %
access_format	string	MIME type of the data product (e.g. 'application/x-pds4' for PDS4, 'application/fits' for FITS files)	application/x-pds-zip	0.0%
access_url	string	Direct URL to retrieve the data product from the ESA Planetary Science Archive	https://psa.esa.int/psa-tap/data?retr...	0.0%
c1max	float64	Spatial coordinate 1 upper bound: longitude in degrees (0-360 E)	-152.51171	67.6%
c1min	float64	Spatial coordinate 1 lower bound: longitude in degrees (0-360 E) for Mars surface observations	-163.992024	67.6%
c2max	float64	Spatial coordinate 2 upper bound: latitude in degrees	-21.89393	67.6%
c2min	float64	Spatial coordinate 2 lower bound: latitude in degrees (-90 to +90) for Mars surface observations	-22.363433	67.6%
creation_date	string	ISO 8601 date when this data product was created or archived in the PSA	2020-04-01T23:51:43.867	0.0%
dataproduct_type	string	EPN-TAP data product type: 'sp' (spectrum), 'im' (image), 'pr' (profile), 'cu' (cube), 'vo' (visibility/occultation)	ci	0.0%
granule_gid	string	Group identifier linking related granules from the same instrument sequence or observation campaign	MEX-M-OMEGA-2-EDR-FLIGHT-V1.0:DATA	0.0%
granule_uid	string	Unique observation/granule identifier in the PSA archive; primary key for each data product	MEX-M-OMEGA-2-EDR-FLIGHT-V1.0:DATA:CR...	0.0%
instrument_host_name	string	Always 'Mars Express' -- the ESA spacecraft that has been orbiting Mars since December 2003	Mars Express	0.0%
instrument_name	string	Instrument name: HRSC (stereo camera, ~10 m/pixel), MARSIS (subsurface radar), OMEGA (mineralogy spectrometer 0.4-5 um), PFS (Fourier spectrometer), SPICAM (UV/IR spectrometer), ASPERA-3 (plasma analyzer), MaRS (radio science), VMC (visual monitoring camera)	OMEGA	0.0%
modification_date	string	ISO 8601 date when this data product was last modified in the PSA	2020-04-01T23:51:43.867	0.0%
obs_id	string	Observation ID assigned by the instrument team; format varies by instrument	MEX-M-OMEGA-2-EDR-FLIGHT-V1.0:DATA:CR...	0.0%
processing_level	float64	Data processing level: '2' (calibrated), '3' (derived), '5' (partially processed) per PDS4 standard	5.0	36.0%
release_date	string	ISO 8601 date when this data product was publicly released	2005-01-01T00:00:00.0	0.0%
service_title	string	Title of the TAP service providing this record	psa	0.0%
target_class	string	EPN-TAP target class: 'planet', 'satellite' (for Phobos/Deimos), or 'interplanetary_medium'	planet	44.8%
target_name	string	Target body name: primarily 'Mars', also 'Phobos', 'Deimos', or 'Solar Wind' for ASPERA-3 plasma measurements	Mars	44.8%
thumbnail_url	string	URL of a thumbnail preview image for this observation; null for non-imaging data products	https://psa.esa.int/psa-tap/data?retr...	65.8%
time_max	float64	Observation end time as Julian Date; observation durations range from seconds (VMC images) to hours (MARSIS passes)	2452690.345162847	0.0%
time_min	float64	Observation start time as Julian Date (days since Jan 1 4713 BC noon); Mars Express arrived at JD ~2452998 (Dec 2003)	2452690.342974734	0.0%

Quick stats

• 1,696,284 total observations
• 8 instruments
• 2 distinct targets
• Time span: JD 2452690.3 -- 2460964.2

Instruments

• ASPERA-3: 675,880 observations
• HRSC: 265,020 observations
• VMC: 252,989 observations
• MaRS: 231,249 observations
• SPICAM: 89,427 observations
• PFS: 88,872 observations
• MARSIS: 56,980 observations
• OMEGA: 35,867 observations

Usage

from datasets import load_dataset

ds = load_dataset("juliensimon/esa-mars-express-observations", split="train")
df = ds.to_pandas()

from datasets import load_dataset

ds = load_dataset("juliensimon/esa-mars-express-observations", split="train")
df = ds.to_pandas()

# Observations per instrument
print(df["instrument_name"].value_counts())

# HRSC images
hrsc = df[df["instrument_name"] == "HRSC"]
print(f"{len(hrsc):,} HRSC observations")

# Timeline of observations by year
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
df["year"] = ((df["time_min"] - 2451545.0) / 365.25 + 2000).astype(int)
df.groupby(["year", "instrument_name"]).size().unstack().plot(kind="bar", stacked=True)
plt.title("Mars Express observations per year")
plt.ylabel("Count")
plt.tight_layout()
plt.show()

Data source

https://psa.esa.int/

Update schedule

Weekly (Monday at 07:00 UTC) via GitHub Actions.

Related datasets

• juliensimon/esa-exomars-tgo-observations

• juliensimon/nasa-maven-kp-insitu

• juliensimon/nasa-mars-rover-images

• juliensimon/mars-craters-robbins

If you find this dataset useful, please consider giving it a like on Hugging Face. It helps others discover it.

About the author

Created by Julien Simon — AI Operating Partner at Fortino Capital. Part of the Space Datasets collection.

Citation

@dataset{esa_mars_express_observations,
  title = {ESA Mars Express Observations},
  author = {juliensimon},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://huggingface.co/datasets/juliensimon/esa-mars-express-observations},
  publisher = {Hugging Face}
}

License

cc-by-nc-3.0-igo