Filters

Filters

Short product names

SW_IPDxIRR_2F

Full product name
Ionospheric Plasma IRregularities characterised by the Swarm satellites (Swarm IPIR)

Description

Time series of characteristics of the plasma density and plasma irregularities along the orbit from single satellite measurements. Time series of local plasma conditions, including background density and total electron content. Data related to geomagnetic regions in the ionosphere. Indication of severity of plasma irregularities for ground-based users provided. Contains ionospheric plasma characteristics from multiple instruments derived at 1 Hz, updated daily with 24-hour timespan.

Output variables

VariableUnitsDescriptionDimType
Timestamp-CDF_EPOCH of the measurement.1CDF_EPOCH
LatitudedegPosition in ITRF - Latitude.1CDF_DOUBLE
LongitudedegPosition in ITRF - Longitude.1CDF_DOUBLE
RadiusmPosition in ITRF - Radius.1CDF_DOUBLE
Necm^-3Plasma density, directly copied from the Langmuir probe files.1CDF_DOUBLE
Background_Necm^-3Background density, as calculated from Ne using a percentile filter of 551 datapoints (2 Hz raw data) and 35 as the percentile.1CDF_DOUBLE
Foreground_Necm^-3Foreground density, as calculated from ndens using a percentile filter of 7 datapoints (2 Hz raw data) and 50 as the percentile.1CDF_DOUBLE
TeKElectron temperature, directly copied from the Langmuir probe files.1CDF_DOUBLE
PCP_flag-The polar cap patch flag: 0 if the plasma density measurement occurred OUTSIDE a polar cap patch. 1 if the plasma density measurement occurred at one of the edges of a polar cap patch (no plasma velocity measurements are available). 2 if the plasma density measurement occurred at the LEADING edge of a polar cap patch. 3 if the plasma density measurement occurred at the TRAILING edge of a polar cap patch. 4 if the plasma density measurement occurred INSIDE a polar cap patch proper. When no ion drift data is available, the leading and trailing edges cannot be distinguished. In this case the polar cap patch flag is set to 4 throughout the patch proper and to 1 throughout both edges.1CDF_INT4
Grad_Ne_at_100kmcm^-3/mThe electron density gradient in a running window calculated via linear regression over 27 data points for the 2 Hz electron density data.1CDF_DOUBLE
Grad_Ne_at_50kmcm^-3/mThe electron density gradient in a running window calculated via linear regression over 13 data points for the 2 Hz electron density data.1CDF_DOUBLE
Grad_Ne_at_20kmcm^-3/mThe electron density gradient in a running window calculated via linear regression over 5 data points for the 2 Hz electron density data.1CDF_DOUBLE
Grad_Ne_at_PCP_edgecm^-3/mThe linear electron density gradient calculated over the edges of a patch. This variable is non-zero only at the edges of polar cap patches.1CDF_DOUBLE
RODcm^-3/sRate Of change of Density1CDF_DOUBLE
RODI10scm^-3/sRate Of change of Density Index (RODI) is the standard deviation of ROD over 10 seconds.1CDF_DOUBLE
RODI20scm^-3/sRate Of change of Density Index (RODI) is the standard deviation of ROD over 20 seconds.1CDF_DOUBLE
delta_Ne10scm^-3Derived by subtracting Ne by its median filtered value in 10 seconds. As a result, delta_Ne10s indicates the electron density fluctuations smaller than 75 km.1CDF_DOUBLE
delta_Ne20scm^-3Derived by subtracting Ne by its median filtered value in 20 seconds. As a result, delta_Ne20s indicates the electron density fluctuations smaller than 150 km.1CDF_DOUBLE
delta_Ne40scm^-3Derived by subtracting Ne by its median filtered value in 40 seconds. As a result, delta_Ne40s indicates the electron density fluctuations smaller than 300 km.1CDF_DOUBLE
Num_GPS_satellites-Total number of tracked GPS satellites above 20 degrees.1CDF_INT4
mVTECTECUMedian of VTEC from all available GPS satellites above 30 degrees.1CDF_DOUBLE
mROTTECU/sMedian of Rate Of change of TEC (ROT) from all available GPS satellites above 30 degrees.1CDF_DOUBLE
mROTI10sTECU/sMedian of Rate Of change of TEC Index (ROTI) from all available GPS satellites above 30 degrees. The ROTI of each satellite is the standard deviation of ROT over 10 seconds.1CDF_DOUBLE
mROTI20sTECU/sMedian of Rate Of change of TEC Index (ROTI) from all available GPS satellites above 30 degrees. The ROTI of each satellite is the standard deviation of ROT over 20 seconds.1CDF_DOUBLE
IBI_flag-Plasma Bubble Index, copied from the level-2 Ionospheric Bubble Index product, IBIxTMS_2F. 1CDF_INT4
Ionosphere_region_flag-0: equator, 1: mid-latitudes; 2: auroral oval; 3: polar cap.1CDF_INT4
IPIR_index-The numeric index for plasma fluctuations and irregularities: 0-3 low, 4-5 medium, and > 6 high level of ionosphericplasma irregularities.1CDF_INT4
Ne_quality_flag-Quality flag for the Ne data and the derived data from Ne, e.g., background density, foreground density etc.1CDF_INT4
TEC_STDTECUSTD of VTEC from all GPS satellites.1CDF_DOUBLE

Details

Product Identifier IPDxIRR_2F
Data Access Can be downloaded
directly via an ftp client at ftp://swarm-diss.eo.esa.int/Level2daily/Latest_baselines/IPD/IRR/
or via any HTTP browser at https://swarm-diss.eo.esa.int/
Science Paper
  • Jin Y, Spicher A, Xiong C, Clausen L, Kervalishvili G, Stolle C, Miloch W (2019), "Ionospheric plasma irregularities characterized by the Swarm satellites: statistics at high latitudes", Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics, Vol. 124, pp. 1262–128, DOI: 10.1029/2018JA026063
  • Jin Y, Kotova D, Xiong C, Brask SM, Clausen LBN, Kervalishvili G, et al. (2022), "Ionospheric plasma IRregularities - IPIR - Data product based on data from the swarm satellites", Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics, 127, e2021JA030183, DOI: 10.1029/2021JA030183
Definition Time series of characteristics of the plasma density and plasma irregularities along the orbit from single satellite measurements. Time series of local plasma conditions, including background density and total electron content. Data related to geomagnetic regions in the ionosphere. Indication of severity of plasma irregularities for ground-based users provided
Input data EFI_LP_1B, TECxTMS_2F, AOBxFAC_2F, IBIxTMS_2F, PCP – Polar Cap Products
Input time span 3 days
Spatial representation Data provided along entire orbits at positions of Swarm A, B, and C
Time representation 1 second time series (the electron density data are downsampled to 1 second resolution; the timestamp of the electron density and TEC data are rounded to the nearest integer UTC seconds)
Units See data format table
Resolution Temporal data resolution of 1 second, density variations estimated at 0.5 second resolution
Uncertainty N/A
Quality indicator Quality flags are handed through from Level 1b and Level 2 processing which is used as input data
Data volume ca.10 MB per day, per satellite
Data format CDF
Output time span 1 day
Update rate 1 per day
Latency 10 min
Notes The meanings of the PCP_flag are as follows: 0 if the plasma density measurement occurred outside a polar cap patch. 1 if the plasma density measurement occurred at one of the edges of a polar cap patch (no plasma velocity measurements are available). 2 if the plasma density measurement occurred at the leading edge of a polar cap patch. 3 if the plasma density measurement occurred at the trailing edge of a polar cap patch. 4 if the plasma density measurement occurred inside a polar cap patch proper. When no ion drift data is available, the leading and trailing edges cannot be distinguished. In this case the polar cap patch flag is set to 4 throughout the patch proper and to 1 throughout both edges