MMS FPI-DES: Magnetospheric Plasma Particle Distributions at 4.5-Second Resolution

NASA's Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) mission provides corrected phase space distribution maps of electrons from its Fast Plasma Investigation instrument. Data are aggregated onboard from high-resolution 30-millisecond observations into 4.5-second survey resolution sky maps. This Level 2 product includes time stamps and instrument state annotations for analysis of plasma in the mission's region of interest.

Use Cases

• Modeling magnetospheric plasma dynamics based on electron distribution maps.
• Analyzing particle behavior in space based on corrected 'Fast Survey Sky Map' distributions.
• Correlating plasma phenomena with instrument system states based on provided time stamps and annotations.

Strengths

• Data originates from NASA's authoritative Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) mission.
• Provides corrected, high-quality distribution maps at the time of release.
• Includes instrument state annotations for contextual analysis.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count and dataset size are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Data is provided in BIN format, which may require specialized tools for access and processing.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Collected by the Fast Plasma Investigation, Dual Electron Spectrometer (FPI, DES) instrument on the Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) satellites, aggregated onboard from burst resolution.

Time Range

Covers observations during the current mission phase in the MMS Region Of Interest.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 06:32:30.423560; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Spatial coverage is the magnetospheric region of interest for the MMS mission.