ABEM Terrameter SAS 1000 / SAS 4000
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16
APPENDIX G. AMP FILE FORMAT
This is a description of the ABEM Multi-purpose Protocol data format contained in an ASCII
text file. It is intended to be fairly complete, but has the potential to have items added in the
future. In order to make reading of this format easy it follows some basic guidelines that will
be described below, see Section
0
. In Section 0 some examples are provided.
The suggested filename extension is:
.AMP
16.1
BASIC PRINCIPLES
•
The file is divided into three sections: header, data and topography. The topography
section is optional.
•
The line and column numbering starts with line 1 and column 1.
•
The header lines start at column 1 with a key text string that ends with a colon. The
corresponding parameter starts at column 33. If two parameters or more are stated in a
header line they are white space separated (one or more white spaces).
•
The parameters in the header can be divided into two categories,
normal
and
information
only
. The
normal
parameters have a meaning for how data are interpreted and handled,
while the
information only
does not carry any special meaning needed to use the data.
•
The header starts with lines containing
normal
parameters. The first line of the
information
only type
is ”
Protocol #1:
”.
•
The line preceding the legend is always a blank line.
•
An invalid, undefined, or missing value is denoted by either a dash (
-
) or the text string
nan
.
•
Infinite values are denoted by the strings
inf
or
infinity
or a value with a magnitude greater
than
1.0E+38
. Both the string and the value can be signed, e.g.
+inf
or
-inf
. The string
alternative is case insensitive.
16.2
DETAILS, LINE BY LINE
Line 1
*
:
The name of the original record.
Line 2
*
:
Instrument model and serial number. The serial number is
optional.
Line 3
*
:
Date and time of creation of the original data record in the format
DD/MM/YYYY HH:MM:SS. The month can either be in a two-
digit number format or a three-letter abbreviation. For example:
17th of September 1997 would be either
17/09/1997
or
17/SEP/1997
.
Line 4
*
:
X, Y, and Z co-ordinates of the base station (in meters).
Line 5
*
:
Number of text lines contained in the header section (=N
H
), data
section (=N
D
), and topography section (=N
T
) respectively.
Line 6
*
:
Acquisition mode, where 1 = SP, 2 = Resistivity, 3 = IP (single
time
window),
4
=
IP
(multiple
time
windows).
