MMS 4 FPI: Plasma Electron Distributions at 4.5-Second Resolution

The Fast Plasma Investigation (FPI) instrument on the Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) mission provides corrected phase space distribution maps for electrons. Data are aggregated onboard from high-resolution burst observations and reported at a 4.5-second survey resolution. This Level 2 product from NASA includes time stamps and instrument state annotations.

Use Cases

• Modeling magnetospheric plasma behavior based on electron distribution maps.
• Analyzing instrument performance and data quality based on the included state annotations.
• Studying particle dynamics in the region of interest based on the aggregated survey resolution data.

Strengths

• Data is corrected and converted to provide the highest possible quality at the time of release.
• Includes time stamps and instrument state annotations for each 4.5-second observation period.

Limitations

• 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

Data collected by the Dual Electron Spectrometer (DES) on the MMS spacecraft, aggregated onboard from burst resolution.

Time Range

Covers observations during the MMS mission phase in its region of interest.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 06:05:18.348971; freshness should be verified.

Geography

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