STEREO-A PLASTIC: Helium Ion Counts and Flux Relative to Solar Wind Speed

STEREO-A spacecraft daily measurements of singly-charged helium ion counts and relative energy fluxes across four distinct speed ratio bins relative to solar wind speed. The data includes He⁺ energy spectra, directional information, and context parameters like proton plasma velocity, derived from coincidence measurements. These Level 3 data are produced by NASA and last updated in March 2026.

Use Cases

• Analyze pickup ion signatures based on He⁺ energy spectra and directional information
• Study solar wind interaction based on ion speed ratios relative to solar wind bulk speed
• Model plasma dynamics based on derived proton bulk parameters like speed, thermal velocity, and density
• Validate ion identification methods based on energy per charge, time-of-flight, and solid state detector measurements

Strengths

• Data includes four specific speed ratio bins (1.44-1.85, 1.85-2.50, 2.50-3.50, 3.50-8.00) for detailed analysis
• Proton bulk parameters are corrected for background and dead time
• Data is available in multiple formats (BIN, PDF, HTML) and from the official STEREO Science Center

Limitations

• 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

Data collected by the STEREO-A spacecraft PLASTIC instrument using coincidence measurements.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 11:02:29.893768; freshness should be verified