ACE SWICS: Daily Solar Wind Ion Composition and Plasma Parameters

NASA's Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE) satellite provides daily measurements of solar wind plasma properties. The Solar Wind Ion Composition Spectrometer (SWICS) data includes elemental and isotopic abundance ratios, average charge states, ion speeds, thermal speeds, and a solar wind type classifier. This Level 2 dataset represents an updated release with improved time series measurements and statistical error estimates.

Use Cases

• Classifying solar wind types (Streamer, Coronal Hole, CME) based on the solar wind type parameter
• Analyzing solar wind elemental composition based on He/O, C/O, N/O, Ne/O, Mg/O, Si/O, S/O, and Fe/O abundance ratios
• Studying ionization states in the solar wind based on average charge states for C, O, Mg, Si, and Fe
• Investigating solar wind dynamics based on He+2, C+5, O+6, and Fe+10 speeds and thermal speeds

Strengths

• Data quality is described as suitable for serious scientific study
• Release notes describe the data, methods, and data quality issues
• Represents a major update with completely redesigned analysis methods to account for instrumental and statistical effects
• Provides estimates of statistical error for measurements

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Measured by the Solar Wind Ion Composition Spectrometer (SWICS) instrument on the Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE) satellite.

Time Range

Data collection began prior to August 23, 2011 (SWICS Version 1.1).

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03 13 04:33:05.329391; freshness should be verified

Geography

Space-based measurements from the ACE satellite at the L1 Lagrange point.