MMS Data Products - Definitions

Raw

Raw telemetry data as received at the ground receiving station

L0

Binary CCSDS packets (as produced by the corresponding instrument; unpacked metadata

Survey: Within 30 minutes of telemetry arriving at the SOC.
Burst: TBS timeframe that will support the creation of L1 products within 24 hours of telemetry arriving at the SOC.

L1A

Extracted telemetry items; no calibrations or corrections applied; B and Vsc to all investigations

Survey (for SITL support): within 60 minutes of Survey telemetry arriving at the SOC.  
Burst: within 24 hours of all expected telemetry for a burst segment arriving at the SOC.

L1B

Extracted telemetry data to which instrument-level provisional calibrations have been applied; simple moments, spectral indices

Survey (for SITL support): within 60 minutes of Survey telemetry arriving at the SOC.  
Burst: within 24 hours of all expected telemetry for a burst segment arriving at the SOC.

QL 

Scientific data products that are generated using simplified science processing algorithms, e.g. with provisional calibrations.

Survey: within 60 minutes of Survey telemetry arriving at the SOC.
Burst: Quicklook products are not planned for Burst data.

L2pre

“Instrument-level” research-grade data product, best calibrations to shorter-term delivery date. Quality is sufficient for designated intra-instrument L2 products to be processed.
Mag data in BCS coord and MAG coord only.

Within two weeks of AFG and DFG telemetry arriving at the SOC.  Note that this is an internal MMS product and not expected to be released to the general research community.

L2

 “Instrument-level” research-grade scientific data products, definitive products
Currently, only GSE coord is required; more can be added by individual teams.

Available to the general research community within 35 days of telemetry downlink.  To support this timeline, instrument teams deliver L2 files to the SOC within 30 days of L0 data being available at the SOC. 

L3

“Spacecraft- and Mission-level” [research-grade] products; resampled spatially and/or temporally and combined with measurements from other MMS instruments to produce a merged data set.  Most all "mission-level" L3 products are provided only for designated events (i.e., the mission
success events aka Sweet Sixteen).

The L3 designation is also used for analysis files that support specific publications.

1) Following the point in time when the PI or his designate identifies an event as one on which the instrument teams should focus, the associated Level-3 data from all sources will be made available to the broader scientific communities at the time the PI or his designate validates the scientific value of that data, or within 60 days, whichever period is shorter.

2) If the individual instrument teams generate L3 data for their own purposes, that data must be made available to the broader communities within 60 days of the time of its generation, even if it was not generated for a specific call made by the PI or his designate.

3) The instrument teams will work to produce a larger overall collection of public L3 data over time as feasible within available resources and other priorities.