Helios 1 E6: Hourly Solar Particle Fluxes in 13 Energy Channels

13 particle flux measurements—protons in 5 energy ranges, alpha particles in 6, and electrons in 2—averaged over approximately one-hour intervals from the Helios 1 spacecraft. The data, provided by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, is stored in ASCII format with records spanning 4-5 hours and containing 10 overlapping segments. Each segment includes start and stop times, flux values, and their statistical uncertainties, though many values are fill values.

Use Cases

• Modeling solar energetic particle events based on proton fluxes in 5 energy ranges.
• Analyzing solar wind composition based on alpha particle fluxes in 6 energy ranges.
• Studying electron acceleration and transport based on electron fluxes in 2 energy ranges.
• Investigating temporal correlations between different particle species and energy channels.
• Validating space weather models using hourly-averaged particle flux data.

Strengths

• Provides fluxes for three particle species across 13 distinct energy ranges.
• Data is averaged over approximately one-hour intervals, suitable for time-series analysis.
• Includes statistical uncertainties for each of the 13 flux measurements.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Most data words in a segment are fill values, with good values appearing only in a minority.
• No spacecraft position information is included, limiting spatial context.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Measurements from the E6 experiment on the Helios 1 spacecraft.

Time Range

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Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 07:12:01.400531; freshness should be verified.

Geography

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