Parker Solar Probe FIELDS: Search Coil Magnetometer Spectral Data

NASA's Parker Solar Probe FIELDS experiment provides calibrated magnetic field and voltage spectra from its Digital Fields Board. The Level 2 data contains power spectral densities in sensor coordinates, calibrated for instrument gain and filter responses, with a typical cadence of 30 seconds during solar encounters. Data is expressed in units of nanoTesla squared per Hertz for magnetic fields and Volts squared per Hertz for voltages.

Use Cases

• Analyze solar wind turbulence spectra based on calibrated magnetic field power spectral densities.
• Study low-frequency (<75 kHz) electromagnetic wave activity near the Sun using time-series spectral data.
• Model spacecraft-plasma sheath interactions using voltage sensor data expressed in Volts^2/Hz.
• Compare magnetic field components across different solar orbits using the provided coordinate rotation matrices.

Strengths

• Data is calibrated for six specific instrument responses, including Hanning window, in-band gain, and filter responses.
• Provides coordinate transformation matrices for aligning magnetic field data from early solar orbits.
• Spectral data has pseudo-logarithmically spaced frequency bins with reported central frequencies.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• High-frequency spectral slopes may be affected by non-physical trends from digital filter compensation.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Collected by the FIELDS experiment's Digital Fields Board on the Parker Solar Probe spacecraft.

Time Range

Covers solar orbits, with specific data characteristics for orbits 1-2 and orbits 3+.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 05:47:27.372688; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Heliospheric measurements from the Parker Solar Probe's trajectory, specifically within 0.25 AU of the Sun during encounters.