MMS HPCA: Magnetospheric Ion Composition Moments, 10 s Survey

Hot Plasma Composition Analyzer (HPCA) instruments on the MMS spacecraft measure the energy and composition of magnetospheric plasmas from 1 eV to 40 keV. The Level 2 survey data product provides moment arrays for five ion species across 63 energies and 16 azimuths, acquired every 10 seconds. This dataset is produced by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and was last updated in March 2026.

Use Cases

• Analyzing magnetospheric plasma composition dynamics based on counts for protons, alpha particles, helium ions, and singly charged oxygen.
• Studying ion energy distributions across the 1 eV to 40 keV range.
• Modeling plasma behavior over spacecraft spin periods based on 10-second resolution data.
• Investigating background plasma counts to calibrate instrument measurements.

Strengths

• Data covers five distinct ion species: protons (H+), alpha particles (He++), helium ions (He+), singly charged Oxygen (O+), and background counts.
• Energy range spans from 1 eV to 40 keV across 63 discrete energy levels.
• Data is acquired every 10 seconds, providing high temporal resolution for half a spacecraft spin period.

Limitations

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

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Measured by Hot Plasma Composition Analyzer (HPCA) instruments on the MMS spacecraft.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 09:12:43.938484; freshness should be verified.