STEREO A PLASTIC and STEREO B PLASTIC 
PROTON BULK PARAMETER DATA

Data provided by the PLASTIC team at the
University of New Hampshire 
under NASA contract NAS5-00132

Files on this website are provided in Excel (XLS) 
format and in tab deliminated text (TXT).
CDF files (currently for 1 min data) are available
through the SSC data archive.

STEREO solar wind data presented here
are meant to provide an overview of
large scale solar wind behavior and for selection
of interesting event periods.  

These data are delivered to the public 
domain as soon as possible.  Efforts
are made to include the latest known calibration and
background determinations, however, 
especially in the early years of the mission, 
these may be expected to undergo revision.  We
therefore suggest that users regularly return
to this page, and check the "Modification History"
at the end of this "Readme" file.

Proton bulk parameters provided here are 
derived from a 1D Maxwellian fit to a 
single coincidence rate ("RA_Trig") and are
subjected to a background correction.

The E/W angle is derived from a matrix rate
with 5-deg binning.  The E/W calibration is
preliminary.

10-minute averages are obtained by averaging
over 1-minute cadence instrument data cycles.

The times provided indicate the start time of the 10-minute
average

Parameters provided in the 10-minute data sets:

Year
Day of Year
Hour
Minute
Second
Day and Time
Proton number density Np in [protons/cc]
Proton bulk speed (s/c frame) Vp in [km/s]
Proton kinetic temperature in [ degrees K ]
Proton Thermal speed V_th in [km/s], defined here as sqrt(2kT/m)
Proton N/S flow angle in [ deg ], direction from which the flow is
           coming.  A positive (>0) n/s angle implies flow from
           nominally south of the ecliptic plane.  See CAUTION.
Proton E/W_corr flow angle in [ deg ], direction from which the flow is
           coming in the ecliptic plane.  A nominal aberration angle 
           correction has been applied. See CAUTION.
Cycle Count [ how many 1-min cycles were used in the 10-min average ]
Caution [ 0 = no identified cautions in use of data ]
Comments are spacecraft or instrument operations, etc that may affect data 
        provided in [ text ]

 CAUTION:  currently the flow angles are NOT corrected for
           spacecraft roll angle.  Periods when the s/c roll angle
           is not near 0 deg (relative to the ecliptic plane) should
           be used with caution.
          
           STEREO roll information is available at
           http://stereo-ssc.nascom.nasa.gov/
           Also check the comments, for instrument calibration
           rolls.
           

********************************************************************************

Hourly averages are obtained by averaging
over 1-minute cadence instrument data cycles.

The times provided indicate the start time of the 1 hour
average

Parameters provided in the 1-hour data sets:

Year
Day of Year
Hour
Minute
Day and Time
Proton density Np in [protons/cc]
Proton bulk speed (s/c frame) Vp in [km/s]
Proton kinetic temperature in [ degrees K ]
Proton Thermal speed V_th in [km/s], defined here as sqrt(2kT/m)
Cycle Count [ how many 1-min cycles used in the 1-hour average ]
CR Carrington Rotation Number (based on Earth, not Spacecraft, Longitude, 
              and rounded to nearest hour)

Files are provided in Excel (XLS) format and in tab deliminated text (TXT)
             
******************************************************************************

Modification History
Oct 5 2007   RA Trig Version 4. 
             Includes new background correction with associated caution codes.
             A caution code = 0 indicates no known issues.
Jan 16 2008  RA Trig Version 5.
             Weighted fit
Feb 07 2008  New data column for N/S flow angle included in 10min averages
Apr 16 2008  10min files with the "APHI" at the end of the file name have E/W flow
             angle included. These are shown with an asterisk on the website.  (The
             processing of these files is ongoing.)