MMS FPI: Magnetospheric Plasma Distribution Moments at 4.5-Second Resolution

NASA's Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) mission provides plasma data from the Fast Plasma Instrument (FPI). The dataset contains integrated moments of phase space distributions from the Dual Electron Spectrometer, aggregated to a 4.5-second survey resolution within the mission's region of interest. Data includes time stamps and instrument state annotations, last updated in March 2026.

Use Cases

• Modeling magnetospheric plasma dynamics based on integrated distribution moments.
• Analyzing instrument performance and calibration states based on included annotation parameters.
• Comparing plasma properties inside and outside the mission's region of interest based on different data collection modes.

Strengths

• Data originates from NASA's authoritative Magnetospheric Multiscale mission.
• Includes instrument state annotations and timestamps for context.
• Last updated on 2026-03-13, indicating recent maintenance.

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, requiring specialized tools for access.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Collected by the Fast Plasma Instrument (FPI) on the Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) satellites, with onboard aggregation.

Time Range

Covers the operational phases of the MMS mission.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 06:23:25.353019

Geography

Data covers the magnetospheric region of interest and surrounding space.