ACE SWICS: Solar Wind Ion Composition and Plasma Parameters, Hourly Data
Updated 3mo ago
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Description
ACE SWICS Version 1.1 data provides hourly measurements of solar wind ion composition, speeds, and charge states from before August 23, 2011. The dataset includes parameters like Fe/O abundance ratio, average charge states for C, O, Mg, Si, Fe, and a solar wind type classifier for streamer, coronal hole, or CME events. NASA produced this release with redesigned analysis methods to improve time series measurements and provide statistical error estimates.
Use Cases
Classify solar wind types (streamer, coronal hole, CME) based on the provided solar wind type parameter.
Model solar wind acceleration and heating processes based on ion speeds and thermal speeds.
Study coronal mass ejection composition and evolution using elemental and charge state ratios.
Analyze interstellar and interplanetary pick-up ion distribution functions up to 100 keV/e.
Strengths
Data represents a major new update produced with completely redesigned analysis methods.
Provides estimates of statistical error for the measurements.
Rare elements are identified more reliably in this release.
Limitations
Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
Data is from the SWICS Version 1.1 instrument, which operated prior to August 23, 2011.
Provenance
Source
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Collection Method
Measurements from the Solar Wind Ion Composition Spectrometer (SWICS) instrument on the ACE spacecraft.
Time Range
Data from before August 23, 2011.
Freshness
Last updated 2026-03 13 04:33:57.849147; freshness should be verified.
Geography
Data collected in space at the L1 Lagrange point.
License is listed as 'other-license-specified'; users must consult with the appropriate ACE team members before publishing work derived from the data.