Polar Satellite Plasma Wave Instrument Data, 2 kHz Time Domain Fields

The Polar Plasma Wave Instrument dataset contains high-frequency waveform receiver data from the Polar satellite. It likely consists of calibrated time-series measurements of electric and magnetic fields in a magnetic field-aligned coordinate system, sampled at 4464 Hz with snapshots of 2048 samples per channel every 128.8 seconds. The data was produced by NASA and is described in a 1995 Space Science Reviews paper by Gurnett et al.

Use Cases

• Analyze plasma wave spectra based on the described frequency range of 20Hz to 2000Hz.
• Study wave propagation and polarization using the magnetic field-aligned coordinate system described.
• Investigate wave occurrence rates and cadence based on the snapshot sampling interval of 128.8 seconds.

Strengths

• Data is calibrated using a described FFT process on 2048 values.
• Specific sampling parameters are provided: 4464 Hz rate and 2048-sample snapshots.
• The coordinate system is explicitly defined as spacecraft-centered and magnetic field-aligned.

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 Plasma Wave Instrument on the Polar satellite.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 05:27:32.503819; freshness should be verified.