DMSP Special Sensor for Ion and Electron Scintillation (SSIES)

The SSIES is an improved version of the Special Sensor for Ions and Electrons (SSIE). The SSIE instruments measured the ambient electron density and temperatures, the ambient ion density, and the average ion temperature and molecular weight at the DMSP orbital altitude.

DMSP SSIES data coverage: 06/1987 - 05/2024 (with data gaps)

Data Access

Data is organized by satellite (see below). Submit comments/questions related to the DMSP/SSIES data to ncei.info@noaa.gov.

Special analysis (1991-2006)

Analysis performed by the Space Weather Analysis (SWA) program at the National Geophysical Data Center (NGDC, now NCEI) compared DMSP/SSIES data with indices derived from the Assimilative Mapping of Ionospheric Electrodynamics (AMIE) model. The results were published at the JGR 2006 paper: A statistical comparison of the AMIE derived and DMSP-SSIES observed high-latitude ionospheric electric field (Kihn, Redmon, Ridley and Hariston). The data used in this analysis can be found below:

Instrument Description

The instrument consists of an electron sensor (Langmuir probe) and an ion sensor mounted on a 2.5 meter boom. The ion sensor is a planar aperture, planar collector sensor oriented to face the spacecraft velocity vector at all times. In addition to the Langmuir probe and planar collector which make up the SSIE, the SSIES has a plasma drift meter and a scintillation meter. An upgraded version of the SSIES (SSIES-2) is planned for flight on vehicles through S-20.