MMS 2 Magnetic Ephemeris and Coordinates with Tsyganenko 2004 Model

NASA's Magnetospheric Multiscale 2 spacecraft provides Level-2 science data at 30-second resolution. The dataset includes spacecraft position, velocity, attitude, and magnetic ephemeris calculated using the Tsyganenko 2004 magnetic field model for disturbed conditions. It contains variables such as magnetic field measurements, footpoint locations, loss cone angles, L-shell, magnetic local time, and activity indices like Dst and Kp.

Use Cases

• Modeling disturbed magnetospheric magnetic field lines based on the Tsyganenko 2004 model parameters.
• Analyzing spacecraft trajectory and orientation relative to magnetic coordinates based on rotational quaternions and ephemeris data.
• Studying geomagnetic activity correlations using included Dst and Kp indices.
• Calculating magnetic footpoints and loss cone angles for particle precipitation studies based on field line tracing.

Strengths

• Data is calculated using the established Tsyganenko 2004 magnetic field model.
• Includes multiple derived variables such as footpoint locations, loss cone angles, L-shell, and magnetic local time.
• Provides coordinate transformation quaternions for 6 different coordinate systems.

Limitations

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

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Data collected and processed from the Magnetospheric Multiscale 2 spacecraft.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 09:05:17.131001; freshness should be verified.