Wind SWE: Solar Wind Thermal Plasma Moments and Spacecraft Position Data

Key Parameter data from the Wind spacecraft's Solar Wind Experiment (SWE) instrument includes proton density, thermal speed, flow velocity vectors, and spacecraft position vectors. The data were progressively despiked across different distribution versions from CDAWeb to MIT to nssdcftp/FTPBrowser. Quality flags indicate data validity, with a flag of 0 representing good data.

Use Cases

• Analyzing solar wind proton density and thermal speed variations based on SWE instrument measurements.
• Studying solar wind flow velocity vectors in Geocentric Solar Ecliptic (GSE) and Geocentric Solar Magnetospheric (GSM) coordinate systems.
• Validating data quality using integer quality flags that indicate analysis method success or failure.
• Comparing spacecraft position vectors across different data versions (MIT, nssdcftp, CDAWeb) for consistency checks.

Strengths

• Includes detailed quality flag system with bit-level meanings for data validation.
• Data available in multiple coordinate systems (GSE Cartesian/spherical, GSM) across different versions.
• Progressive despiking applied across data distribution pipelines.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Different versions (MIT, nssdcftp, CDAWeb) contain slightly different parameters (e.g., temperature vs. thermal speed).

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Data generated by the Wind spacecraft's Solar Wind Experiment (SWE) instrument analysis program.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 12:50:59.487061; freshness should be verified.