As part of the Cluster Wave Experiment Consortium (WEC), the Wide-Band
(WED) Plasma Wave investigation is designed to provide high-resolutio
n measurements of both electric and magnetic fields in selected freque
ncy bands from 25 Hz to 577 kHz. Continuous waveforms are digitised an
d transmitted in either a 220 kbit s(-1) real-time mode or a 73 kbit s
(-1) recorded mode. The real-time data are received directly by a NASA
Deep-Space Network (DSN) receiving station, and the recorded data are
stood in the spacecraft solid-state recorder for later playback. In b
oth cases the waveforms are Fourier transformed on the ground to provi
de high-resolution frequency-time spectrograms. The WED measurements c
omplement those of the other WEC instruments and also provide a unique
new capability for performing very-long-baseline interferometry (VLBI
) measurements.