MMS HPCA: Magnetospheric Plasma Ion Composition and Energy, 0.625 s Survey Data

Hot Plasma Composition Analyzer (HPCA) data from NASA's Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) mission measures ion counts for five species. The Level 2 survey product provides counts for protons, alpha particles, helium ions, and oxygen ions across 63 energy levels and 16 azimuth angles, with a nominal 10-second acquisition period. Data is provided by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and was last updated in March 2026.

Use Cases

• Modeling magnetospheric plasma dynamics based on multi-species ion composition data.
• Analyzing ion energy distributions based on measurements across 63 energy levels.
• Studying plasma behavior during spacecraft spins based on data from 16 azimuth angles.
• Investigating solar wind-magnetosphere interactions based on proton and alpha particle counts.

Strengths

• Measures five distinct ion species (H+, He++, He+, O+, background).
• Provides energy-resolved data across 63 energy levels from 1 eV to 40 keV.
• Captures directional information through 16 elevation anodes and azimuths.

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

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

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 08:26:00.281384; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Magnetospheric regions traversed by the MMS spacecraft.