ISEE-3: Propagated Solar Wind Plasma Data at 60-Second Resolution

NASA's ISEE-3 satellite data provides solar wind plasma measurements propagated to a position just outside the Earth's bow shock. The data has been linearly interpolated to a 60-second resolution in GSM coordinates, 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 to Earth based on the described minimum variance technique.
• Conducting superposed epoch studies of magnetospheric events based on the propagated plasma data.
• Modeling the interaction of solar wind with the Earth's bow shock and magnetopause based on the data's spatial reference.
• Investigating the limitations of propagation methods for shocks and high-tilt conditions as described.

Strengths

• Data is propagated to a specific spatial reference point (about 17, 0, 0 Re) just outside the nominal bow shock.
• Time resolution is standardized to 60 seconds through linear interpolation.
• Methodology is documented with references to published scientific papers (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 interpolation of processed solar wind data from the ISEE-3 satellite using a minimum variance technique.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 03:51:02.197475; freshness should be verified.