The ion pod was deployed in times when a starship was expected to encounter an ion storm, notoriously dangerous hazards to even the hardiest starships. Manually operated by one crewmember, the pod took readings otherwise not available to conventional sensors in the course of the storm. The pod's exposed position was a potential vulnerability to the ship (and the crewmember manning the pod) in severe ion storms that inflicted the ship with stress levels in the Force-7 range. In those instances, the ion pod could be jettisoned at the captain's discretion.