A data browser developed by Dr. Yen-Jung Wu here at SSL allows you to make plots of ICON data very quickly, and once the data are plotted provides a quick link to the file at the NASA repository. 

 

Version 6 of the IVM Level 2 data product is now available on the Public FTP site. It's a significant upgrade, and the release notes in the documentation describe the improvements to the product.

A number of IVM data are reprocessed on days between Feb 7, 2020 and Dec 22, 2021 where conjugate observation periods are present. The long list of these data is noted below. This correctly flags the IVM data mid-manuever to be good. It is recommended that if one is interested in data obtained during these short periods of time that you work with the latest revision of the data where the data quality flag is correct. Watch for timestamps reflecting the reprocessing date in February 2022 and an increase in the revision number over previously available data. Zip files containing these data will be published by Feb 14.

New IVM Level 2 data (Version 5 of Product 2.7) are now available. This update improves the running correction for observed bias, using a measurement window that extends days into the future to inform the correction. As such, the data are released several weeks behind other products (2.2 and 2.4 for example) We recommend that users migrate to these products (available on the ICON FTP site) and review the documentation available here.

 

The first of two IVMs, which is designated IVM-A based on its location on the spacecraft (facing forward), started End Item Testing (EIT) this week. The EIT is a thorough functional checkout including calibration over temperature and serves as the entry point baseline for environmental testing. Environmental testing will include EMI/EMC, Vibration and Thermal Vacuum testing which simulate the launch and flight environments as closely as possible. Testing will be completed in about eight weeks. 

While the IVM enjoys many years of heritage, the ICON IVM has improvements and modifications that will produce measurements of the plasma drift with unprecedented sensitivity to achieve the ICON science goals. 

The second IVM (IVM-B) fabrication is following closely behind IVM-A and is in the final phases of test and assembly. IVM-B faces in the aft direction on the spacecraft during normal operations, when the remote sensing optical instruments view the northern hemisphere. However, it will be activated during operations when the spacecraft is rotated to allow the optical instruments to view the southern hemisphere.