MMS 3 DSP: Electric Field Power Spectral Density from Spacecraft Probes

144 Fast Fourier Transforms are performed per second by a field-programmable gate array onboard the MMS 3 spacecraft. This Level 2 dataset contains electric field power spectral density measurements from the Axial and Spin-Plane Double Probes, processed via a 1024-point FFT algorithm. The data is produced by NASA's Magnetospheric Multiscale mission and was last updated in March 2026.

Use Cases

• Analyze plasma wave modes and frequencies based on the 56 pseudo-logarithmic frequency bins.
• Estimate local plasma density based on the description of narrow-band emission fitting with ~3% accuracy.
• Study wave dynamics and energy transfer based on power spectra calculated from nine simultaneous signals.
• Investigate signal timing discrepancies based on the described fraction-of-a-second inaccuracies between unsynchronized channels.

Strengths

• Data is processed onboard with 48-bit averaging accuracy to maximize dynamic range.
• Spectra cover over 120 dB of dynamic range with ~5% precision via pseudo-logarithmic compression.
• Nine signals can be processed simultaneously from different probe types and sampling rates.

Limitations

• Timing between measurement channels can be inaccurate by a fraction of a second, as components are not synchronized.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count and file format details are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Onboard computation by the Digital Signal Processor (DSP) on the MMS 3 spacecraft, using FFTs on analog signals from the ADP and SDP probes.

Time Range

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Freshness

Last updated 2026-03 13 06:11:47.720336; freshness should be verified.

Geography

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