Wind SWE Strahl Detector: Electron Angular Distributions from Solar Wind

Wind spacecraft's SWE Strahl Detector measured electron angular distributions at 32 energies between 19 eV and 1238 eV. Each distribution is a 14x12 angular grid of electron counts, converted to physical units, sampled with a 12-second cadence. The data set includes f_strahl, f_antistrahl, phi_strahl, phi_antistrahl, theta, and energy.

Use Cases

• Modeling solar wind electron strahl and antistrahl behavior based on angular distribution data.
• Analyzing electron energy spectra across 32 discrete energy levels from 19 eV to 1238 eV.
• Studying spacecraft spin-dependent azimuthal sampling based on the 3-second spin period and 3.53° bin separation.
• Calibrating detector efficiency and geometric factors for physical unit conversion of electron counts.

Strengths

• Data includes measurements across 32 specific electron energy levels.
• Angular distributions are structured as a 14x12 grid with counts converted to physical units.
• Sampling cadence of approximately 12 seconds provides a defined temporal resolution.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Data may reflect temporal bias inherent to the specific spacecraft mission period.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Measured by the Wind/SWE Strahl Detector instrument on the Wind spacecraft.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 13:13:18.583016; freshness should be verified.