AIM/CDE: Cosmic Dust Grain Impact Measurements

Daily netCDF files from the AIM satellite's Cosmic Dust Experiment (CDE). Level 1 data contains time tags, pulse heights, electron counts, and engineering data for each dust grain impact. Level 2 data adds particle mass and spacecraft location, with future levels planned for orbital mass totals and correlation with cloud brightness.

Use Cases

• Model dust particle mass distribution based on impact pulse height data.
• Correlate dust impact rates with spacecraft orbital position.
• Analyze temporal patterns of dust impacts using time-tagged event data.
• Validate instrument performance using engineering and housekeeping data.
• Study relationships between dust mass and Polar Mesospheric Cloud brightness (future L4 data).

Strengths

• Data is structured into defined levels (L1, L2) with planned future products (L3, L4).
• Each impact event includes multiple measured parameters (time, pulse height, electron count).
• Level 2 data adds derived particle mass and spacecraft location.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Description metadata is limited; actual data quality requires manual inspection after download.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Data collected by the Cosmic Dust Experiment (CDE) instrument on the AIM satellite.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 04:37:45.190071; freshness should be verified.