Voyager 2 Plasma Measurements with Faraday Cup Detectors

High-resolution plasma data from the Voyager 2 spacecraft's Faraday cup detectors. The investigation measured ion velocity, density, and pressure, and electron energies from 5 eV to 1 keV. The dataset was produced by NASA, with sampling times ranging from 12 to 192 seconds.

Use Cases

• Modeling solar wind convection based on fitted isotropic Maxwellian distributions.
• Analyzing plasma ion macroscopic properties based on velocity, density, and pressure measurements.
• Studying electron energy spectra from 5 eV to 1 keV using side-looking Faraday cup data.
• Investigating plasma flow regimes from subsonic to highly supersonic using three sequential energy scans.
• Calculating velocity components in the RTN coordinate system for spatial analysis.

Strengths

• Measurement errors are quantified, with one sigma errors typically less than 0.5% in speed and VR.
• Data coverage spans from subsonic to highly supersonic plasma flow regimes.
• Sampling times range from 12 to 192 seconds, with more frequent sampling early in the mission.

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

Collection Method

Data collected by Voyager 2 spacecraft using Faraday cup detectors.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 04:10:44.574973; freshness should be verified.