Polar PWI: High-Frequency Plasma Wave Data from the Polar Satellite

The Polar satellite collected high-frequency plasma wave data in Earth's magnetosphere. The dataset contains 6-channel field measurements with a 25kHz bandwidth, recorded in snapshots of 31816 points per channel every 9.2 seconds. It was produced by NASA and is based on the Plasma Wave Instrument described by Gurnett et al. in 1995.

Use Cases

• Analyze wave modes like chorus, hiss, and hybrid waves based on the high-frequency waveform data.
• Study wave propagation and polarization based on the 6-channel field measurements in a magnetic field-aligned coordinate system.
• Investigate plasma wave spectra and power distribution based on the calibrated frequency domain data derived from FFT processing.
• Model wave-particle interactions in the magnetosphere based on the time-series snapshots collected every 9.2 seconds.

Strengths

• Data is calibrated using an FFT on 1024 values, with calibration performed in the frequency domain.
• Snapshots contain 31816 points per channel, captured every 9.2 seconds with a duration of 0.045 seconds each.
• Covers an unattenuated frequency range from 20Hz to 25000Hz.

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 (NASA)

Collection Method

Collected by the Plasma Wave Instrument (PWI) on the Polar satellite.

Time Range

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Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 07:34:39.082247; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Earth's magnetosphere, from the orbit of the Polar satellite.