Voyager 2 Plasma Wave Electric Field Waveforms at Uranus, 60 ms Samples

Electric field waveform samples from the Voyager 2 Plasma Wave Receiver collected during the Uranus encounter. The dataset contains about 271 frames of waveform data, with each 60-millisecond line consisting of 1600 4-bit samples taken at 28,800 samples per second through a 40 Hz to 12 kHz bandpass filter. NASA produced this version 1.0 dataset, with an overview published in 1986 and a full instrument description from 1977.

Use Cases

• Generate frequency-time spectrograms based on Fourier-transformed waveform lines mentioned in the description.
• Study dust impact events on the spacecraft based on raw waveform plots described.
• Calibrate waveform amplitude by comparing derived spectra to spectrum analyzer data as described.
• Analyze plasma wave dynamics in Uranus's magnetosphere based on the electric field measurements.

Strengths

• Data captures a specific planetary encounter (Uranus) from the Voyager 2 mission.
• Waveforms have a high sampling rate of 28,800 samples per second.
• The overall dynamic range of the waveform receiver is about 100 db.

Limitations

• Absolute calibration is not directly provided due to missing automatic gain control settings.
• 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

Collected by the Voyager 2 Plasma Wave Receiver instrument during the Uranus encounter.

Time Range

During the Voyager 2 Uranus encounter (specific dates not provided).

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 13:52:08.590331; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Spacecraft trajectory near Uranus.