Geotail CPI: Propagated Solar Wind Data at 60-Second Resolution

Geotail Comprehensive Plasma Instrumentation (CPI) data consists of solar wind measurements propagated to a position just outside the Earth's bow shock and linearly interpolated to a 60-second resolution. The dataset was constructed by Dr. J.M. Weygand for Prof. R.L. McPherron under National Science Foundation grants ATM 02-1798 and ATM 02-08501. It was primarily used in superposed epoch studies of magnetospheric phenomena.

Use Cases

• Analyze solar wind propagation delays based on the described minimum variance technique
• Conduct superposed epoch studies of magnetospheric events using propagated solar wind parameters
• Model space weather impacts based on high-time-resolution solar wind data
• Validate magnetic field propagation methods against the referenced Weimer technique

Strengths

• Data is processed to a consistent 60-second temporal resolution
• Propagation method is documented with specific references to peer-reviewed publications
• Dataset is associated with specific NSF grants (ATM 02-1798 and ATM 02-08501)

Limitations

• The propagation method does not work well for shocks and minimum variance directions with tilts greater than 70 degrees of the sun-earth line
• 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

Solar wind data propagated using a minimum variance technique and linearly interpolated to 1-minute resolution.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 03:59:01.332172; freshness should be verified