MMS 4 Digital Signal Processor (DSP) Search Coil Magnetometer (SCM), Magnetic Field Power Spectral Density, Level 2 (L2), Fast Mode, 2 s Data

Nine signals can be processed simultaneously. Six of the twelve DC-coupled E, DC-coupled V, or SCM signals (16384 samples/s) are selected for spectral processing at 100% duty cycle. In addition, the three AC-coupled signals (262,144 kS/s) each can be processed at 6.25% duty cycle.

Each of the nine signals has 16, 1024-point FFT operations every second; the field-programmable gate array (FPGA) performs 144 FFTs per second. The FFT is performed by an arithmetic logic unit (ALU), which is controlled by a state machine. Both are hard-coded into the FPGA.

The operation starts by applying a 1024-point Hanning window onto a waveform. Next, an FFT is implemented. The FFT is broken into a series of "butterfly" operations performed by the ALU.

The result has real and imaginary data. Power spectra are calculated by taking the sum of squares of real and imaginary values (the ALU includes a multiplier), which produces a power spectrum with 512 frequency bins. The frequency bins are then combined to give pseudo-logarithmic frequency spacing (del f)/f.

The spectra are reduced to 88 frequency bins with (del f)/f between 6% and 12% when possible. Narrow-band emissions can be fit to an accuracy of (del f)/f ~3%, allowing for an accurate determination of plasma density. The spectra can be averaged in time.

The fastest reporting rate of any signal is 16 spectra per second. Reporting rates can be as slow a one spectra every 16 s (averaging 256 spectra). The DSP and SCM instrument papers can be found at link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11214-014-0115-x and link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11214-014-0096-9, respectively.

The DSP and SCM data product guides can be found at lasp.colorado.edu/mms/sdc/public/datasets/fields/.