MMS EDI: Ambient Electron Flux Measurements from Magnetospheric Multiscale Mission

Burst mode data from the Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) mission's Electron Drift Instrument (EDI) in ambient mode, sampled at 1024 Hz (0.9765625 ms). The dataset, provided by NASA, contains measurements of ambient electrons at a selected pitch angle and fixed energy, including beam firing directions, times-of-flight, quality indicators, and timestamps. Data are reported in telemetry slots, with 128 slots per second per Gun Detector Unit in Burst mode.

Use Cases

• Analyzing high-frequency variations in ambient electron fluxes based on the 1024 samples per second burst mode data.
• Studying electron pitch angle distributions based on the instrument's field-aligned or 90-degree sampling capability.
• Investigating signal-to-noise dynamics in particle detection based on the squared SNR threshold method described.
• Modeling electron drift velocities and electric fields by comparing ambient mode data with electric field mode operations.

Strengths

• Data is sourced from NASA's Magnetospheric Multiscale mission, a flagship space physics project.
• Provides high-temporal-resolution burst measurements at 1024 samples per second.
• Instrument description details a sophisticated detection method using a squared signal-to-noise ratio threshold.

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 or libraries for access and analysis.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Collected by the Electron Drift Instrument (EDI) aboard the Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) spacecraft.

Time Range

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Freshness

Last updated 2026-03 05:57:37.872489; freshness should be verified.

Geography

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