ACE Solar Wind Ion Composition Spectrometer (SWICS) Solar Wind Plasma Elemental Charge Sta

ACE SWICS/SWIMS data provides charge state distributions for Carbon, Oxygen, Neon, Magnesium, Silicon, and Iron in the solar wind, as opposed to averaged values. The dataset, produced by NASA, represents a major update with redesigned analysis methods to account for instrumental and statistical effects, offering improved time series measurements for elemental abundance, charge state composition, and kinetic properties. It includes statistical error estimates and data quality flags, with the last metadata update recorded in March 2026.

Use Cases

• Modeling solar wind heating and acceleration processes based on ion charge state distributions.
• Studying the chemical and ionic composition of the solar wind for coronal diagnostics.
• Analyzing the kinetic properties and temperatures of major solar wind ions.
• Investigating interstellar and interplanetary dust cloud pick-up ions based on measured distribution functions.

Strengths

• Data represents a major update with completely redesigned analysis methods (Shearer et al., 2014).
• Provides estimates of statistical error for measurements.
• Includes data quality flags to aid in assessment.
• Quality is described as suitable for serious scientific study.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count and file size are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• The description advises consulting with the ACE team before publication to avoid misunderstandings.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Measurements from the ACE spacecraft's Solar Wind Ion Composition Spectrometer (SWICS) instrument.

Time Range

Covers the SWICS Version 1.1 operational period prior to August 23, 2011.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 04:36:33.093453; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Data collected in space from the ACE satellite's orbit.