MMS FPI: Plasma Distribution Maps from Magnetospheric Multiscale Mission

NASA's Magnetospheric Multiscale mission provides corrected plasma distribution maps aggregated to 4.5-second intervals. The Fast Plasma Investigation instrument captures high-resolution observations of ion and electron spectra in the mission's region of interest. These Level 2 data products offer processed sky map distributions with timestamps and instrument state annotations.

Use Cases

• Modeling magnetospheric plasma dynamics based on aggregated particle distribution maps.
• Analyzing ion and electron spectra based on Fast Plasma Investigation instrument data.
• Studying instrument performance and calibration based on annotated state information.
• Investigating time-correlated plasma events based on 4.5-second resolution timestamps.

Strengths

• Data originates from NASA's authoritative Magnetospheric Multiscale mission.
• Distributions are corrected and converted for highest possible quality at release.
• Data includes timestamps and instrument state annotations.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Data is provided in BIN format, which may require specialized tools for access.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Data gathered by the Fast Plasma Investigation instrument onboard the Magnetospheric Multiscale spacecraft.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 08:33:16.223826; freshness should be verified.