Time series comparisons in Deep Space Network

The Deep Space Network (DSN) is NASA’s international array of antennas that support interplanetary spacecraft missions. DSN provides radar and radio astronomy observations that enhance our understanding of the solar system and the larger universe. A track is a block of continuous multi-dimensional time series from the beginning to end of DSN communication with the target spacecraft, containing 129 monitor data items lasting several hours at a frequency of 0.2-1Hz. Monitor data on each track reports on the performance of specific spacecraft operations and the DSN itself. DSN is receiving signals from 32 spacecraft across the solar system. DSN has pressure to reduce costs while maintaining the quality of support for DSN mission users. DSN operators need to simultaneously monitor multiple tracks and identify anomalies in real time. DSN has seen that as the number of missions increases, the data that needs to be processed increases over time. In this project, we look at the last 8 years of data for analysis. Any anomaly in the track indicates a problem with either the spacecraft, DSN equipment, or weather conditions. DSN operators typically write “discrepancy reports” for further analysis. It is recognized that it would be quite helpful to identify 10 similar historical tracks out of the huge database to quickly find/match anomalies. This tool has three functions: (1) identification of the top 10 similar historical tracks, (2) detection of anomalies compared to the reference normal track, and (3) comparison of statistical differences between two given tracks. The requirements for these features were confirmed by survey responses from 21 DSN operators and engineers. The preliminary machine learning model has shown promising performance (AUC=0.92). We plan to increase the number of data sets and perform additional testing to improve performance further before its planned integration into the Track Visualizer to assist DSN field operators and engineers.