STEREO-A PLASTIC: 1-Hour Solar Wind Proton Plasma Parameters

STEREO-A PLASTIC data provides 1-hour averaged solar wind proton flow speed, density, temperature, and thermal speed. The records include flow velocity vector components and direction angles in HERTN and RTN coordinates, along with chi-squared and statistical uncertainties, flags, and spacecraft position information. This dataset is produced by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and was last updated on March 13, 2026.

Use Cases

• Model solar wind propagation based on proton flow speed and velocity vector components.
• Analyze plasma temperature and density variations for space weather forecasting.
• Correlate spacecraft position with plasma parameters for contextual heliospheric studies.
• Assess data quality and uncertainty using included chi-squared values and statistical flags.

Strengths

• Includes 1-hour averaged values for key solar wind parameters.
• Provides multiple coordinate systems (HERTN, RTN, HEE, HEEQ, HCI) for vector and position data.
• Contains statistical uncertainties and quality flags for data validation.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Last updated 2026-03-13 11:15:48.005220; freshness should be verified.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration