DMSP F17 SSIES: Satellite Thermal Plasma Measurements, 1-Second Data

The Special Sensors-Ions, Electrons, and Scintillation (SSIES) thermal plasma analysis package is a suite of instruments built by the Center for Space Sciences at the University of Texas at Dallas and flown on DMSP satellites. It includes a Retarding Potential Analyzer (RPA), Ion Drift meter (IDM), scintillation meter, and Langmuir probe. The data is provided by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and was last updated on 2026-03 -13.

Use Cases

• Analyzing ion composition and density based on the Retarding Potential Analyzer (RPA) instrument.
• Studying ion drift velocities based on the Ion Drift meter (IDM) measurements.
• Investigating plasma irregularities and scintillation based on the scintillation meter data.
• Characterizing electron temperature and density based on the Langmuir probe readings.

Strengths

• Data originates from a specific, well-documented instrument suite (SSIES) built by a university center.
• Data is provided by the authoritative source, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
• The dataset was last updated on 2026-03-13, suggesting recent maintenance.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment for large-scale analysis.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Collected by the SSIES instrument suite on the DMSP F17 satellite.

Time Range

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Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 07:20:58.783896; freshness should be verified.

Geography

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