Wind Satellite Propagated Solar Wind Magnetic Field Data at 60-Second Resolution

NASA's Wind satellite provides tri-axial fluxgate magnetometer data in Geocentric Solar Ecliptic (GSE) coordinates, propagated to a position just outside Earth's bow shock. The dataset, constructed by Dr. J.M. Weygand for Prof. R.L. McPherron under NSF grants, consists of solar wind magnetic field measurements linearly interpolated to a 60-second resolution. It was primarily used for superposed epoch studies in space weather research, with a version 2 correcting an offset found after November 2004.

Use Cases

• Predicting interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) propagation delays based on the described minimum variance technique.
• Conducting superposed epoch studies of magnetospheric events using propagated solar wind data.
• Analyzing solar wind conditions near Earth's bow shock based on the 60-second resolution magnetic field vectors.
• Validating or improving solar wind propagation models based on the methodology outlined in the referenced papers.

Strengths

• Data is propagated to a consistent reference point just outside the nominal bow shock (about 17, 0, 0 Re).
• Includes a corrected version (Version 2) where a known offset in the Bz component after November 2004 has been removed.
• Methodology is documented in peer-reviewed publications (Weimer et al., 2003, 2004).

Limitations

• The propagation method does not work well for shocks and minimum variance directions with tilts greater than 70 degrees of the sun-earth line.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count and total temporal coverage are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Wind satellite mission.

Collection Method

Solar wind data propagated using a minimum variance technique and linearly interpolated to 1-minute resolution.

Time Range

Temporal coverage includes data from at least 1999 onward, given the correction formula reference.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 13:25:03.221068; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Data is associated with solar wind measurements in near-Earth space, specifically propagated to a point outside Earth's bow shock.