Submission Format for Identifications

Please read the notes below before submitting your identifications. Also, if you wish to validate your JSON format before submission, there are many JSON validators online, follow this external link for one of them.

Also, MPC criteria specifying what types of identification submissions are automatically accepted or rejected by the pipeline can be found on the criteria page.

• A header and links section is compulsory.
• Within the header section name and email are compulsory.
  • The name you submit should be the same each time you submit a suggested linkage and consistent with how your name appears in Minor Planet Electronic Circulars (MPECs) e.g. P. Veres or Veres
  • Please do not include accented characters.
  • Please do not include special characters such as {} or [], otherwise your submission will be rejected.
• Within each link is an optional orbit section and if present the element field-names are compulsory.
• For Designations, these should be in the PACKED form whether for numbered (e.g. s2334) or unnumbered (e.g. K19XXYY) designations.
• For tracklets (ITF or NEOCP), the specification requires each to be specified by a list composed of [trkSub, date/date-time, obs-code]. The date/date-time can be from ANY observation in the tracklet and the allowed date/date-time formats are:
  • YYYYMMDD e.g. 20200702
  • YYYY MM DD.DDDDDDDD e.g. 2020 07 29.47653005
  • YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SSZ e.g 2019-01-03T13:18:37Z
• For NEOCP linkages please supply the extra JSON field in the NEOCP link with "neocp" i.e. "identification_type": "neocp". See below for example in the JSON.
• In the JSON format, the backslash, \, is a reserved character. However, a trkSub can begin with a backslash. Therefore before submission all backslashes will need to be escaped i.e. from \ to \\.

Below is an example of the format required for sending potential identification links to the MPC.

• Link_0 is an example of - Designations (plural) and ITF tracklet(s)
• Link_1 is an example of - ONLY designations (plural)
• Link_2 is an example of - ITF tracklets only
• Link_3 is an example of - A (i.e. one) designation and ITF tracklet(s)

  
{
  "header": {
    "name": "J.Doe",
    "email": "j.doe@email.provider.com",
    "comment": "Here are some identifications that I gone and done."
  },
  "links": {
    "link_0": {
      "designations": [
        "K10TD3E",
        "K15A53T",
        "K16G96F"
      ],
      "trksubs": [
        [
          "P10R1G5",
          "20190828",
          "F51"
        ],
        [
          "P10R1G6",
          "20190827",
          "K16"
        ],
        [
          "P10R1X4",
          "20190829",
          "F52"
        ]
      ],
      "orbit": {
        "arg_pericenter": 51.56776,
        "eccentricity": 0.0785125,
        "epoch": 2458894.5,
        "inclination": 3.33483,
        "lon_asc_node": 298.05892,
        "pericenter_distance": 2.56959638,
        "pericenter_time": 2458148.124892
      }
    },
    "link_1": {
      "designations": [
        "K10TD3E",
        "K15A53T",
        "K16G96F"
      ]
    },
    "link_2": {
      "trksubs": [
        [
          "P10R1G5",
          "20190828",
          "F51"
        ],
        [
          "P10R1G6",
          "20190827",
          "K16"
        ],
        [
          "P10R1X4",
          "20190829",
          "F52"
        ]
    ],
      "identification_type": "neocp",
      "orbit": {
        "arg_pericenter": 51.56776,
        "eccentricity": 0.0785125,
        "epoch": 2458894.5,
        "inclination": 3.33483,
        "lon_asc_node": 298.05892,
        "pericenter_distance": 2.56959638,
        "pericenter_time": 2458148.124892
      }
    },
    "link_3": {
      "designations": [
        "K10TD3E"
      ],
      "trksubs": [
        [
          "P10R1G5",
          "20190828",
          "F51"
        ],
        [
          "P10R1G6",
          "20190827",
          "K16"
        ],
        [
          "P10R1X4",
          "20190829",
          "F52"
        ]
      ]
    }
  }
}