URAP Radio Astronomy Receiver: 144-Second Averaged Electric Field Intensities

NASA's Ulysses spacecraft Unified Radio and Plasma Wave (URAP) instrument provides 144-second averages of electric field intensities from its Radio Astronomy Receiver. The data covers frequencies from 1.25 kHz to 940 kHz across 64 low-frequency and 12 high-frequency channels, with units of microVolt/Hz**0.5 measured at the receiver input. The averaging period corresponds to the instrument's basic cycling time through predefined frequency lists.

Use Cases

• Analyzing solar radio burst signatures based on electric field intensity measurements across frequency channels
• Studying plasma wave interactions based on frequency-dependent antenna impedance effects described
• Modeling spacecraft antenna performance in varying plasma conditions based on described effective length calculations
• Comparing radio wave phenomena across different frequency lists selected by telecommand as mentioned

Strengths

• Data originates from the NASA Ulysses spacecraft mission, a recognized scientific source
• Frequency coverage spans from 1.25 kHz to 940 kHz across 76 distinct channels
• The averaging period (144 seconds) is explicitly tied to the instrument's operational cycling time

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment
• Conversion to electric field strength is complicated by plasma-dependent antenna impedance, as noted

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Data collected by the Unified Radio and Plasma Wave (URAP) instrument on the Ulysses spacecraft.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 08:36:19.354634; freshness should be verified