MMS 3 FPI: Plasma Particle Distributions at 0.15-Second Burst Resolution

NASA's Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) mission Fast Plasma Investigation (FPI) instrument provides corrected phase space distribution maps for ions and electrons. Data are collected in Burst Mode at 0.15-second resolution for ions and 0.03-second for electrons during selected intervals within the mission's region of interest. This Level 2 product contains the highest quality burst sky map distributions available at the time of release, annotated with timestamps and instrument state information.

Use Cases

• Analyze high-temporal-resolution plasma particle distributions based on burst mode data.
• Study magnetospheric phenomena like magnetic reconnection based on ion and electron sky maps.
• Validate or improve plasma simulation models based on corrected, instrument-state-annotated distributions.
• Investigate particle acceleration mechanisms based on phase space maps from the MMS mission region of interest.

Strengths

• Data are collected at high temporal resolution (0.15 seconds for ions, 0.03 seconds for electrons) in burst mode.
• Distributions are corrected and represent the highest quality available at release time.
• Data includes timestamps and annotations characterizing the instrument system state.

Limitations

• Not all burst resolution data are downlinked; only selected intervals are available.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Collected by the Fast Plasma Investigation (FPI) Dual Ion Spectrometer (DIS) instrument on the MMS 3 spacecraft.

Time Range

Covers intervals within the MMS mission phases where burst mode data was selected for downlink.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 06:14:40.130338; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Data is collected within the Magnetospheric Multiscale mission's region of interest in space.