Wind SWE: Electron Pitch-Angle Distributions at 13 Energy Levels

Wind spacecraft electron pitch-angle distributions derived from 9-second measurements, typically separated by one or more 3-second spin periods. The dataset provides electron fluxes at 30 directional bins relative to the magnetic field across 13 specific energy levels from 19.34 eV to 1238 eV, including spin-averaged values. It was produced by NASA's Wind/SWE instrument team, with the last metadata update recorded on March 13, 2026.

Use Cases

• Analyze electron pitch-angle anisotropy based on 30 directional bins relative to the magnetic field.
• Study solar wind electron energy distributions based on 13 specific energy channels.
• Model electron phase-space density based on reported values averaged over contributing detectors.
• Validate theoretical predictions of electron behavior in the solar wind based on the derived pitch-angle distributions.

Strengths

• Provides electron fluxes at 13 specific energy levels (19.34 eV to 1238 eV).
• Offers high angular resolution with 30 pitch-angle bins, each six degrees wide.
• Includes spin-averaged energy bins aggregated from all pitch-angle measurements.
• Derived from measurements by the Wind/SWE instrument, a cited scientific instrument.

Limitations

• The Principal Investigator advises caution and suggests discussing interpretations with the SWE science team before publishing.
• 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 sorting, by pitch angle and energy, the solar wind electron distributions measured by the Wind/SWE electron instrument.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 13:12:19.563729; freshness should be verified.