Voyager 2 PRA: Jupiter Encounter Radio Emissions at 48-Second Resolution

Voyager 2 Planetary Radio Astronomy (PRA) Highband receiver data from the Jupiter encounter between 1979-06-01 and 1979-07-30. The dataset provides 48-second resolution mean power measurements across 128 frequency channels from 1.2 MHz to 40.4 MHz, calibrated in millibels. It was collected by NASA's National Aeronautics and Space Administration and includes associated spectrogram plots and IDL save sets.

Use Cases

• Analyzing the intensity and structure of Jupiter's decametric radio emissions based on the 128-channel highband receiver data.
• Studying polarization dynamics of radio waves based on the alternating right-hand (RH) and left-hand (LH) intensity measurements.
• Creating time-frequency spectrograms of planetary radio emissions based on the 48-second resolution power data.
• Calibrating or validating radio astronomy models based on the provided millibel units and reference power levels.

Strengths

• Data covers a specific 60-day encounter period from 1979-06-01 to 1979 07-30.
• Provides measurements across 128 frequency channels with 200 kHz bandwidth each, spanning 1.2 MHz to 40.4 MHz.
• Includes calibrated data in millibels with a defined zero-point reference of approximately 1.4 x 10^-21 W m^-2 Hz^-1.
• Associated quick-look GIF spectrogram plots are available for both polarization channels.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Data is stored in a binary (BIN) format, requiring specific tools like IDL for access and processing.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Collected by the Voyager 2 spacecraft's Planetary Radio Astronomy (PRA) Highband receiver during its Jupiter encounter.

Time Range

1979-06-01 to 1979-07-30

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 14:05:52.267709; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Jupiter planetary system, data collected from spacecraft flyby.