Wind SMS/STICS: 30-Minute Ion Energy and Pitch-Angle Distributions in Magnetosphere

Wind STICS 30-minute Energy-Resolved Pitch-Angle Distributions (ERPAs) for selected ion species using triple coincidence (H+, He+, He2+, C5+, O+, O6+, Fe10+) and double coincidence (H+, He+, He2+, O+, O6+) measurements in the magnetosphere. The data are organized by the angle relative to the magnetic field vector direction in 7.5-degree bins and preserve energy separation at the native resolution of 32 E/q bins from 6 to 200 keV/e. The dataset is produced by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and was last updated in March 2026.

Use Cases

• Modeling ion pitch-angle distributions in the magnetosphere based on 7.5-degree angular bins.
• Analyzing suprathermal ion composition and abundance based on triple-coincidence measurements for species like H+, He+, and Fe10+.
• Studying energy spectra of ions from 6 to 200 keV/e based on the 32-step E/q voltage scanning.
• Investigating signal-to-noise characteristics in plasma data based on the comparison between triple- and double-coincidence measurement techniques.

Strengths

• Data includes measurements for 7 distinct ion species identified via triple coincidence.
• Angular resolution is high, with pitch-angle data binned at 7.5-degree increments.
• Energy range is well-defined, covering 6 to 200 keV/e across 32 E/q steps.
• Instrument design provides a nearly 4π steradian viewing area via three telescopes and spacecraft spin.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment for large-scale statistical analysis.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Measured by the Wind spacecraft's Suprathermal Ion Composition Spectrometer (STICS), a time-of-flight plasma mass spectrometer.

Time Range

Temporal coverage is not explicitly stated in the provided input.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 03:46:39.255448; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Spatial coverage is the magnetosphere, as measured by the Wind satellite.