Voyager 2 Solar Wind Plasma Parameters, Hourly Averages

Hourly averaged plasma data from the Voyager 2 spacecraft's Plasma Science instrument. Parameters include proton speed, density, thermal speed, and velocity vector components in RTN coordinates. The dataset is provided by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and was last updated in March 2026.

Use Cases

• Modeling solar wind propagation based on proton speed and density measurements.
• Analyzing plasma temperature evolution using the proton thermal speed column.
• Studying velocity vector anisotropy based on the R, T, and N component columns.
• Investigating instrument reliability trends for VT and VN components after 1989.

Strengths

• Data includes specific error estimates: speed and radial velocity errors typically less than 0.5%, density and thermal speed errors less than 5%.
• Velocity components are provided in a defined RTN coordinate system.
• Sampling times are documented, ranging from 12 to 192 seconds.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• The VT and VN velocity components are flagged as often unreliable after 1989.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Data obtained by fitting a convected isotropic Maxwellian distribution to Voyager 2 Plasma Science instrument measurements.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 04:08:36.591058; freshness should be verified.