IMP-8: Propagated Solar Wind Magnetic Field Measurements at 60-Second Resolution

NASA's IMP-8 satellite provides tri-axial fluxgate magnetometer data in GSM coordinates. The data consists of propagated solar wind measurements interpolated to a 60-second resolution, originally constructed by Dr. J.M. Weygand for Prof. R.L. McPherron. It was used in superposed epoch studies for NSF grants ATM 02-1798 and ATM 02-08501.

Use Cases

• Analyzing solar wind propagation delays based on the minimum variance technique described.
• Studying magnetic field variance near the bow shock based on propagated data.
• Conducting superposed epoch studies of magnetospheric events based on the dataset's original purpose.
• Modeling interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) propagation times based on the referenced methodology.

Strengths

• Data is propagated to a specific reference position just outside the nominal bow shock (about 17, 0, 0 Re).
• Time resolution is explicitly stated as 60 seconds (1 minute).
• Construction methodology is documented with references to peer-reviewed publications (Weimer et al., 2003, 2004).

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

Propagation and linear interpolation of 1-minute resolution processed solar wind data constructed by Dr. J.M. Weygand.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 03:56:15.710782; freshness should be verified.