Parker Solar Probe: Energetic Particle Rates from the Sun

Parker Solar Probe's IS☉IS instrument suite provides 5-minute measurements of energetic particles near the Sun. The data, calibrated by the Princeton University science team, includes pitch angle calculations derived from onboard magnetic field measurements. Public data from the University of New Hampshire-hosted Science Operations Center is updated as instrument calibration improves throughout the mission.

Use Cases

• Modeling solar energetic particle acceleration and transport based on near-Sun particle rate measurements.
• Analyzing correlations between particle fluxes and solar activity based on 5-minute time resolution data.
• Studying particle pitch angle distributions based on calculations using magnetic field data.
• Validating space weather forecasting models based on in-situ particle observations from the Parker Solar Probe.

Strengths

• Data is calibrated by the IS☉IS science team at Princeton University.
• Pitch angle calculations incorporate magnetic field data from the PSP FIELDS instrument.
• Data is updated over the mission course based on improved instrument calibration.

Limitations

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

Provenance

Source

NASA Parker Solar Probe mission, IS☉IS instrument suite (PI: D. J. McComas, Princeton University).

Collection Method

Collected by the Energetic Particle Instrument-Hi (EPI-Hi) Low Energy Telescope 2 (LET2) onboard the Parker Solar Probe spacecraft.

Time Range

Covers the ongoing Parker Solar Probe mission timeline.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 05:43:56.977588; freshness should be verified

Geography

Observations from the heliosphere, specifically the near-Sun environment traversed by the spacecraft.