Wind SWE: Averaged Electron Pitch Angle Distributions for 13 Energy Channels

NASA's Wind spacecraft provides averaged electron pitch-angle distribution data from the SWE instrument. The dataset includes averaged phase-space density values for parallel, perpendicular, anti-parallel, and omnidirectional electron fluxes across 13 specific energy channels ranging from 19.34 eV to 1238 eV. Data are averaged at a 12-15 second rate from a later operational mode of the instrument.

Use Cases

• Modeling electron anisotropy in the solar wind based on averaged pitch-angle distributions.
• Analyzing electron flux variations across 13 specific energy channels.
• Studying electron behavior relative to the magnetic field direction using f_para, f_perp, f_anti, and f_omni averages.

Strengths

• Data derived from the Wind/SWE electron instrument, a documented scientific instrument.
• Provides averaged values for four distinct directional flux categories (f_para, f_perp, f_anti, f_omni).
• Includes data for 13 specific electron energy channels, from 19.34 eV to 1238 eV.

Limitations

• Description metadata is limited; actual data quality requires manual inspection after download.
• 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

Derived from integrating electron pitch-angle distributions measured by the Wind/SWE electron instrument.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 13:09:33.604708; freshness should be verified.