DE 2 VEFI: AC Electric Field Spectrometer Measurements

DE 2 Vector Electric Field Instrument (VEFI) data provides triaxial DC and variational electric field measurements at ionospheric altitudes. The instrument used double-probe techniques with 20-m baselines and high-impedance preamplifiers for sensitivity to about 0.1 µV/m. Data was collected by NASA's Dynamics Explorer 2 spacecraft.

Use Cases

• Refining spatial patterns of ionospheric electric fields based on triaxial DC measurements.
• Studying small-scale temporal and spatial variations within electric field patterns.
• Performing correlative studies with other space physics datasets.
• Analyzing extreme low frequency (ELF) and lower frequency irregular structures.

Strengths

• Instrument had a planned DC electric field range of ±1 V/m and resolution of 0.1 mV/m.
• Variational electric field was measured from 4 Hz to 1024 Hz with sensitivity from 1 µV/m to 10 mV/m RMS.
• DC electric field was measured at 16 samples/s, providing a temporal baseline.

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

Measurements obtained via flight-proven double-probe techniques on the Dynamics Explorer 2 spacecraft.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 07:17:14.876348; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Ionospheric altitudes, likely global coverage based on spacecraft orbit.