Van Allen Probe B Electric and Magnetic Field Waveform Data

Van Allen Probe B spacecraft provides targeted burst measurements of 3-dimensional electric fields, 3-dimensional wave magnetic fields, and spacecraft potential. The Burst 2 mode operates at a higher nominal sample rate of 16384 samples per second. Data is provided by NASA in BIN format files.

Use Cases

• Analyze high-frequency electromagnetic wave events based on Burst 2 mode triggering on large amplitude signals near 1 kHz.
• Study spacecraft charging effects based on measurements of spacecraft-sensor potential.
• Correlate electric and magnetic field components based on simultaneous measurements in UVW coordinates.

Strengths

• Provides simultaneous measurements of electric and magnetic fields from a dedicated spacecraft.
• Burst 2 mode offers high-resolution data at 16384 samples per second.
• Data is collected in a targeted manner based on onboard triggering algorithms.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is 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

Measurements from the Electric Fields and Waves (EFW) instrument and EMFISIS magnetic search coil sensors on the Van Allen Probe B spacecraft.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 12:00:01.799539; freshness should be verified.