MMS FPI DES: Partial Plasma Distribution Moments at 4.5-Second Resolution

Partial plasma distribution moments from the Fast Plasma Investigation's Dual Electron Spectrometer on NASA's Magnetospheric Multiscale mission. Data are available at 4.5-second survey resolution and higher burst resolution within mission regions of interest. The dataset includes instrument state annotations and is produced by NASA.

Use Cases

• Analyze plasma density variations based on partial density moments (density_part)
• Study plasma behavior in different mission regions based on Fast Survey and Slow Survey mode data
• Correlate plasma parameters with instrument system state based on included time stamps and annotations

Strengths

• Data originates from NASA's Magnetospheric Multiscale mission
• Includes partial moments integrated over specific portions of velocity space
• Provides data at multiple temporal resolutions (4.5 s survey, 30/150 ms burst)

Limitations

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

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Measured by the Fast Plasma Investigation instrument on the MMS spacecraft.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 09:21:03.821143; freshness should be verified