AE-B Ion Mass Spectrometer Data -------------------------------

bilitza@gsfc.nasa.gov - March 6, 2002

This are data from the AE-B ion mass spectrometer experiment for 
the time period from June 9, 1966 to January 17, 1967 in ASCII 
format. The altitude range covered by the data is 274 to 2840 km. 
There are 8 monthly files (filename format: yyyy_mm_aeb_ims.asc). 
Each file consists of a varying number of data records. The total
volume is about 5 MByte.

A measurement cycle consists of 6 measurements (massindex: 1,2,3,
4,5,6; mass: 14,16,4,1,14,16; ion: N+, O+,He+, H+, N+, O+). The 
cycle time is about 3.5 minutes. Each data record lists the density 
and orbit parameters for one specific density measurement. 

In reprocessing these data from the original PI-provided data set 
the following was done: (i) converting from binaryto ASCII, (ii) 
computing L values using the IGRF model,(iii) verifying the dip 
values with IGRF model, (iv) addingAp, Kp, F10.7, and R, (v) 
dividing the ion densities by thePi-provided calibration factors.

Information about the AE-B satellite, experiments, and data
sets can be found in NSSDC's Master Catalog at 
http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/sc-query.html (enter ae-b).

The digit '9' is used for fill values, e.g. the fill value for the 
densities is 9.9999E+09 and for the L value 99.99. There is a space 
(1X) between consecutive parameters (not listed in Format column).

Parameter		Format		Description
-------------------------------------------------------
Year			I2		yy
Day of year		I3		ddd
Hour			I2		hh
Minute			I2		mm
Second			I2		ss
Local time (dec)	F5.2		seconds
Solar zenith angle	F7.2		degree
UT (dec)		F5.2		seconds
Geodetic Latitude	F6.2		degree
Geodetic Longitude	F6.1		degree
Geomagnetic Latitude	F6.2		degree [North] range: -90 to 90
Geomagnetic Longitude	F6.1		degree [East] range:-180 to 180
Altitude		F6.1		km 	range: 274 to 2840
Dip			F6.2		degree
Dip Latitude		F6.2		degree
L-value			F5.2		McIlwain L-shell parameter
Ap (3 hour)		I3		magnetic index
Kp (3-hour) mag. index	I2		Kp*10 (3- = 27, 3+ = 33, 3o = 30)
F10.7 (daily)		I4		(solar 10.7 cm radio flux)*10
Sunspot number (daily)	I3		solar index
Mass index		I1		values: 1-6			
Mass number		F5.2		AMU
Density			E10.4		cm-3
Current			E8.2		ampere
Turn on #		I4		range: 208 to 6799
Exp num			I1		range: 3 to 7
VS			F5.2		Volt
VMag			F5.3		km/sec
BxSa			F7.1
VVxSa			F7.1
SAxS			F7.1
KFLAG			I5      	ijklm (see note below)
---------------------------------------------------------------
Note for KFLAG: The meaning of ijklm is as follows based on the
original documentation.	
m: m=1 verified, m=2 not checked, m=3 no film	
l: number of original O/A values	
k: number of O/A values including interpolated ones	
j: j=0 no value, j=1 original value from BH tape, j=2 interpolated 
	from accepted point, j=3 interpolated from input points;	
i: i=0 no value, i=1 original value, i=2 value from CORR card, 
	i=3 not present on film, i=4 saturated (channel 9) no value, 
	i=5 new current value only (no OA to compute density)