Helios 2: Hourly Magnetic Field and Solar Wind Plasma Data

Helios 2 hourly merged magnetic field and plasma data was created by NASA's National Space Science Data Center for the COHOWeb platform. The dataset provides magnetic field vectors and plasma flow direction angles in RTN coordinates, with spacecraft position in Heliographic inertial coordinates. The dataset was last updated on March 13, 2026.

Use Cases

• Modeling solar wind propagation based on plasma flow direction angles.
• Analyzing interplanetary magnetic field structure using RTN coordinate vectors.
• Correlating spacecraft position in HGI coordinates with local plasma conditions.
• Studying heliospheric phenomena using merged magnetic and plasma parameters.

Strengths

• Data is provided at an hourly resolution, enabling time-series analysis.
• Merges magnetic field and plasma parameters, offering a multi-instrument view.
• Created by NASA's National Space Science Data Center, an authoritative source.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Description metadata is limited; actual data quality requires manual inspection after download.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Merged data from the Helios 2 spacecraft instruments, created at NSSDC for COHOWeb.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 07:32:22.664021; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Heliospheric (spacecraft trajectory through the inner solar system).