New Horizons SWAP: Solar Wind Pick-Up Ion Histograms, Daily Data

NASA's New Horizons mission collected solar wind pick-up ion histogram data from the Solar Wind Around Pluto (SWAP) instrument. The dataset includes validated summary data and is associated with peer-reviewed publications from 2008 to 2017. Data files are available in BIN and HTML formats.

Use Cases

• Modeling solar wind dynamics in the outer heliosphere based on pick-up ion measurements.
• Analyzing the structure of the solar wind near Pluto based on validated summary data.
• Studying the interaction between the solar wind and neutral particles based on the pick-up ion concept.

Strengths

• Data originates from the NASA New Horizons mission, a primary source for outer solar system science.
• Associated with multiple peer-reviewed publications in journals like ApJS and Space Sci Rev.
• Last updated metadata indicates ongoing curation as of March 2026.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count and dataset size are 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 (NASA)

Collection Method

Collected by the Solar Wind Around Pluto (SWAP) instrument aboard the New Horizons spacecraft.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 08:23:40.295082; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Outer solar system, including the region around Pluto.