Satellite data archives algorithm

Summary form only given. SOH telemetry data with intelligent compression will achieve ratios from 100:1 to 5000:1 with the data becoming more lossy as the compression ratio increases. An archival system using an intelligent compressor will permit putting large amounts of data on a media such as a laser compact disc and eliminate most of the physical storage problems. On-line retrieval will be available instead of locating and hanging tapes or manual reduction of data on paper listings. This intelligent telemetry compression scheme has utility for data rates as slow as 250 b/s increasing to 128 kb/s. Data compression and decompression is performed to the quantization accuracy of one count in 256 (8 bit telemetry word) and may be selectively relaxed (by parameter) to achieve higher data compression ratios