STEREO A PLASTIC and STEREO B PLASTIC 
PROTON BULK PARAMETER DATA

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

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

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.

One minute data is obtained from the
highest time resolution instrument 
data. The instrument has a one-minute
measurement cadence.

The instrument measurement cycle consists of
128 energy-per-charge steps (ESA Steps) logarithmically
stepped from ~80 keV/e down to ~0.3 keV/e every minute.

The first time provided indicates the start time of the
instrument measurement cycle.

A second time provided (labeled as "1 keV/q time") 
estimates the time within the 1-minute cycle where the 
E/Q step corresponds to 1 keV/q.  This E/Q value
corresponds to 438 km/s protons.

Parameters provided in the 1-minute data sets:

1.	Year of cycle start: yyyy 
2.	Day of Year of cycle start: ddd 
3.	Hour of cycle start: hh 
4.	Minute of cycle start: mm 
5.	Second of cycle start: ss 
6.	Day and Time of cycle start: mm/dd/yyyy hh:mm:ss 
7.	Day and Time of 1 keV/q in cycle: mm/dd/yyyy hh:mm:ss
8.	Proton number density Np in [protons/cc]
9.	Proton bulk speed (s/c frame) Vp in [km/s]
10.	Proton kinetic temperature in [ degrees K ]
11.	Proton Thermal speed V_th in [km/s], defined here as sqrt(2kT/m)
12.	Proton N/S flow angle in [ deg ], direction from which the flow is coming. *
13. Error Code [ 0 = no identified errors ] **
14. Caution [ 0 = no identified cautions in use of data ] **
15. Comments are spacecraft or instrument operations, etc that may affect data 
        provided in [ text ]


* A positive (>0) n/s angle implies flow from
  nominally south of the ecliptic plane.
  CAUTION:  currently the N/S angle is 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 from ecliptic north information is available at
            http://stereo-ssc.nascom.nasa.gov/where/

** ERROR CODES
   0 - no processing problems
   1 - definite processing error
   2 - on-board DPU error flag or L1 processing flag set for this time
   3 - data overflow
   4 - data point has a three-sigma variation from the mean
   5 - no data available
   6 - discontinuity in derived thermal speed - difficulty in fitting the distribution function
   7 - thermal speed is below expected values - may indicate fitting issue

** CAUTION CODES
   The caution code is an indication of how sensitive the density value is
   to the method used for determining the background correction. 
   0 - no issues        ( < 5% effect  )
   1 - minor issues     ( 5% to 10% effect )
   2 - use with caution ( > 10% effect )
   



Modification History

Feb-Mar 2008     First issue of 1 Min data sets - BETA runs.  
                 These data are under evaluation.
Aug 2008         Some changes in processing s/w - slight affects on
                 fitting routine.
                 Additional Error/Caution codes added. 
                 Angles are still under evaluation.