FAST Database

The Fast Auroral Snapshot Explorer (FAST) spacecraft collected up to five gigabytes per day over its operational lifespan, consolidating a rich variety of particle and fields data over a range of events and altitudes. Among other uses, these data have proven invaluable for application to the study and modeling of wave-particle interactions in Alfvénic and other waves modes, ionospheric energization, and ion outflow. However, instrumentation and operational idiosyncrasies and outdated access and representation protocols have proven to be a barrier to their usage for researchers outside the FAST team and associates. We have therefore compiled a consolidated, sanitized, and standardized database of FAST particle, field, and spectral energy quantities on a common time axis to facilitate easy access for pursuing these scientific goals without requiring detailed knowledge of instrument operation modes and instrument characteristics. Quantities in the database include spin-period averaged vector electric and magnetic field magnitudes and spectral energy densities from the sub-Hz to kHz range, electron and ion number and energy in- and outflows, and geospatial positioning and trajectory data, which are compiled as ISTP/IACG-compliant Common Data Format (CDF) files. These data are made publicly available here. Representations of the reduced measurements comprising the database are presented from the beginning of the mission in 1996 to the failure of the electric field instrument in the early 2000s. Further details and the code used for dataset generation are available on the affiliated Github page: https://github.com/krishnabhattaram/FASTDatabase.快速极光快照探测器（Fast Auroral Snapshot Explorer, FAST）在其全任务运行周期内，每日可采集高达5吉字节的数据，整合了涵盖多种事件与高度范围的丰富粒子与场域观测数据。除其他应用场景外，这些数据已被证实对阿尔文波及其他波模下的波粒相互作用研究与建模、电离层加速以及离子外流研究具有极高学术价值。然而，仪器与运行特性的特殊性、过时的数据访问与展示协议，成为了FAST团队及合作方以外的研究人员使用这些数据的主要障碍。为此，我们构建了一套整合、清洗且标准化的FAST数据集，将粒子、场域与光谱能量相关参量统一至同一时间轴上，旨在让研究人员无需深入掌握仪器运行模式与仪器特性，即可便捷获取数据以开展上述科学研究。数据集内的参量涵盖：自旋周期平均的矢量电场与磁场幅值、亚赫兹至千赫兹频段的光谱能量密度、电子与离子的数密度及能量流入流出量，以及地理空间定位与轨迹数据，所有数据均采用符合ISTP/IACG规范的通用数据格式（Common Data Format, CDF）文件存储。本数据集现已公开发布于此。本数据集涵盖了1996年任务启动至21世纪初电场仪器失效期间的所有预处理后测量数据。更多细节信息与数据集生成代码可访问关联的GitHub页面：https://github.com/krishnabhattaram/FASTDatabase。