MMS HPCA: Magnetospheric Plasma Ion Counts from Time-of-Flight Analyzer

Hot Plasma Composition Analyzer (HPCA) data from the Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) mission measures ion counts in near-Earth space. The dataset provides counts for five ion species (H+, He++, He+, O+, background) across 63 energy levels, 16 elevation anodes, and 16 azimuths, collected every 10 seconds. It is produced by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and was last updated in March 2026.

Use Cases

• Modeling plasma composition in Earth's magnetosphere based on counts for five ion species.
• Analyzing energy distribution of magnetospheric ions based on measurements across 63 energy levels.
• Studying spatial anisotropy of plasma based on data from 16 elevation anodes and 16 azimuths.
• Investigating time-of-flight spectrometry for space plasma based on the HPCA instrument description.

Strengths

• Measures five distinct ion species (H+, He++, He+, O+, background), enabling composition analysis.
• Provides high-dimensional data with measurements across 63 energy levels and 16 spatial anodes.
• Data is produced by the authoritative National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment for large-scale analysis.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Collected by the Hot Plasma Composition Analyzer (HPCA) instruments on the Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) spacecraft.

Time Range

null

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 06:10:41.813017; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Magnetospheric regions surveyed by the MMS mission.