The CCE carried three highly sensitive instruments ( CHEM , HPCE , MEPA ) to determine the distribution functions of both common and rare ion species over an energy range extending from eVs to MeVs and electrons over an energy range extending from eVs to keVs. It also carried two instruments to measure the ambient magnetic field ( MAG ) and the electric component of plasma waves ( PWE ).
The CCE carried a tape recorder, and its scientific data set is nearly continuous from shortly after launch until early 1989. The expanded CCE data set is quite large (approximately 72 Mbytes/day), and major emphasis was placed on providing effective visibility into all of the data for event identification and for correlative studies. To this end CCE Pool Files, and from them Pool Plots, were formed of most of the CCE data. These files are 6.4 minute averages in scientific units of electrons and ions from a large number of channels for all three particles instruments (including flux as a function of composition, charge state, energy, pitch angle, etc), 68 second averages of B and 62 second averages of plasma wave channels. The files are formed "hands-off" in initial central processing and are not verified, but have proven very useful for a wide range of preliminary studies. Most of the data in the CCE Pool Files are also displayed as CCE Pool Plots, with a complete set of plots for each orbit: line plot fiche for the magnetometer and waves data and color spectrograms for the particles instruments in 35 mm slide format, with approximately 60 types of color plots (flux, spectra, pitch angle distribution, composition, charge state, etc., from each instrument, with each plot covering the full orbit) in 17 to 23 color slides per orbit. These Pool Files and a set of the Pool Plots have been submitted to the NSSDC. It should be noted that while this data set is carefully produced, it does contain known data artifacts, uncompensated gain shifts, background, noise, etc., and should in general be used for detailed analysis only after consulting with the appropriate instrument investigator(s). All of the CCE data ( Pool and the much larger Summary and Master Files ) are archived and accessable in the CCE Science Data Center.