Apollo 15 Solar Wind Measurements at the Lunar Surface

Hourly averaged plasma parameters from the Apollo 15 Solar Wind Spectrometer. The data includes four sets of averages computed with different quality criteria, each containing proton density, alpha-to-proton ratio, bulk speed, flow angle, number of spectra, and rms deviations. The dataset is provided by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

Use Cases

• Analyze solar wind proton density variations based on hourly averaged parameters
• Study the relationship between bulk speed and flow angle based on the four sets of averages
• Compare plasma composition using the alpha-to-proton ratio across different quality criteria
• Evaluate measurement reliability using the number of spectra and rms deviations per average

Strengths

• Data includes four distinct sets of averages computed with rigorous quality criteria
• Each average set contains six specific plasma parameters: proton density, alpha-to-proton ratio, bulk speed, flow angle, number of spectra, and rms deviations

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

Data collected by the Apollo 15 Solar Wind Spectrometer.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 04:33:41.182588; freshness should be verified

Geography

Lunar surface