Van Allen Probe B EFW Burst Mode: Electric and Magnetic Fields in Spacecraft Coordinates

The Van Allen Probe B Electric Field and Waves Suite provides targeted measurements of 3-D electric fields, 3-D wave magnetic fields, and spacecraft potential during brief intervals. Burst Mode 1 data includes three electric field components, six spacecraft-sensor potential components, and three AC magnetic field components from the EMFISIS Search Coil Magnetometer, sampled at 512 samples per second. Data is provided in spacecraft spin coordinates by NASA.

Use Cases

• Analyze wave-particle interactions based on simultaneous electric and magnetic field measurements.
• Study spacecraft charging effects based on spacecraft-sensor potential measurements.
• Identify triggering events for onboard data collection based on amplitude signals near 1 kHz.
• Compare medium-rate (512 samples/s) and high-rate (16384 samples/s) burst data for different science goals.

Strengths

• Data includes three distinct types: Electric Field (E), Searchcoil Magnetic Field (MSC), and Antenna Potential (V).
• Measurements are provided in spacecraft-specific 'uvw' coordinates, rotating with the spacecraft.
• Two burst modes (B1 and B2) offer different sampling rates and triggering mechanisms for varied analysis.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count and file size are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Description metadata is limited; actual data quality requires manual inspection after download.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Data collected by the Van Allen Probe B spacecraft's Electric Field and Waves Suite instrument.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 05:04:57.521768; freshness should be verified.