MMS FPI: Magnetospheric Plasma Distributions at 4.5-Second Resolution

Phase space distribution maps from NASA's Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) mission Fast Plasma Investigation instrument. The data contains corrected ion sky map distributions aggregated to a 4.5-second survey resolution from higher-resolution burst mode observations. NASA produced this Level 2 data product, last updated in March 2026.

Use Cases

• Modeling magnetospheric plasma behavior based on aggregated ion distribution maps.
• Analyzing instrument state and observation quality based on the provided time stamps and annotations.
• Studying particle dynamics in regions of interest based on the Fast Survey Mode data collection.

Strengths

• Data originates from NASA's MMS mission, a recognized scientific satellite program.
• Provides 'highest possible quality' corrected distributions at the time of release.
• Last update recorded as 2026-03-13, indicating recent metadata maintenance.

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 a BIN format, which may require specialized tools for access and analysis.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Collected by the Dual Ion Spectrometer (DIS) component of the Fast Plasma Instrument onboard the MMS satellites, aggregated onboard from burst mode to survey resolution.

Time Range

Covers the 'current Mission Phase' for the MMS Region Of Interest (ROI); specific dates are not provided.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 06:31:10.419671; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Spatial coverage is the magnetospheric Region Of Interest (ROI) for the MMS mission.