IMP 7 LANL: Hourly Solar Wind Plasma Parameters with Anisotropy

Hourly resolution solar wind plasma data created in 2003 by averaging 2-minute data from LANL. The dataset includes temperature anisotropy and alpha/proton ratio, with magnetosheath data excluded. It supersedes previous hourly solar wind data provided by LANL.

Use Cases

• Modeling solar wind-magnetosphere coupling based on hourly plasma parameters.
• Analyzing long-term trends in solar wind temperature anisotropy.
• Studying the variability of alpha particle to proton ratios in the solar wind.

Strengths

• Includes specific derived parameters like temperature anisotropy and alpha/proton ratio.
• Data is at hourly resolution, created by averaging higher-resolution 2-minute source data.
• Magnetosheath data was excluded from the source, potentially increasing data purity for solar wind studies.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Data was created in 2003; its recency for current solar cycles should be verified.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), via LANL (Los Alamos National Laboratory).

Collection Method

Created at NSSDC by averaging 2-minute resolution solar wind data provided by LANL.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 06:30:42.002301; freshness should be verified.