Table · dataset · 2025
Wind SMS Suite SupraThermal Ion Composition Spectrometer (SMS/STICS) Ion Velocity Distribution Functions (VDFs), Level 2 (L2), 3-minute Data in Solar Wind
Listed in NASA Data Portal
Description
The data include Wind STICS 3-minute 3D velocity distribution functions (VDFs) in three units (phase space density, differential number flux and counts), together with their statistical errors, for selected ion species using triple coincidence (H+, He+, He2+, C5+, O+, O6+, and Fe10+) and double coincidence (H+, He+, He2+, O+, O6+) measurements in the solar wind. For details, see spdf.gsfc.nasa.gov/pub/data/wind/documents/wind_stics_lv2_release_notes_revD.pdf.
The Suprathermal Ion Composition Spectrometer (STICS) is a time of flight (TOF) plasma mass spectrometer, capable of identifying mass and mass per charge for incident ions up to 200 keV/e. It uses an electrostatic analyzer to admit ions of a particular energy per charge (E/Q) into the TOF chamber. The E/Q voltage is stepped through 32 values, sitting at each value for approximately 24 sec., to measure ions over the full E/Q range of 6 - 200 keV/e.
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Ions then pass through a carbon foil and TOF chamber, before finally impacting on a solid-state detector (SSD) for energy measurement. STICS combines these three measurements of E/Q, TOF and residual energy, producing PHA words. This triple-coincidence technique greatly improves the signal to noise ratio in the data.
Measurements of E/Q and TOF without residual energy also produce PHA words. These double-coincidence measurements are characterized by better statistics since ions whose energy does not allow them to be registered by the SSD can still be counted in double-coincidence measurements. However, ion identification in double-coincidence measurements are limited to a select number of ions that are well separated in E/Q - TOF space.
The STICS instrument provides full 3D velocity distribution functions, through a combination of multiple telescopes and spacecraft spin. The instrument includes 3 separate TOF telescopes that view 3 separate latitude sectors, as shown in Figure 1 (spdf.gsfc.nasa.gov/pub/data/wind/documents/wind_stics_lv2_release_notes_revD.pdf). In addition, the WIND spacecraft spins, allowing the 3 telescopes to trace out a nearly 4π steradian viewing area.
The longitudinal sectors are shown in Figure 2. The solar direction is in sectors 8-10 while the earthward direction is in sectors 0-2.
Links
Get the data
- Resource spdf.gsfc.nasa.gov/pub/data/wind/sms/l2/stics_cdf/3min_vdf_solarwind ↗
download · from data nasa gov
- Resource cdaweb.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/eval2.cgi?dataset=WI_L2-3MIN_SMS-STICS-VDF-SOLARWIND&i… ↗
download · from data nasa gov
- Resource cdaweb.gsfc.nasa.gov/hapi ↗
download · from data nasa gov
- Resource space.umd.edu/wind ↗
download · from data nasa gov
- PDF spdf.gsfc.nasa.gov/pub/data/wind/documents/wind_stics_lv2_release_notes_revD.pdf ↗
download · from data nasa gov
- Resource helio.data.nasa.gov/dataset/Wind_SMS_STICS_DistributionFunction_Level2_SolarWind_P… ↗
download · from data nasa gov
- Resource hpde.io/NASA/NumericalData/Wind/SMS/STICS/DistributionFunction/Level2/… ↗
download · from data nasa gov
- Resource spdf.gsfc.nasa.gov/pub/data/wind/sms/l2/stics_cdf/3min_vdf_solarwind ↗
download · from data nasa gov
Where it is published
- NASA Data Portal dataset page data.nasa.gov/dataset/wind-sms-suite-suprathermal-ion-composition-spectromet… ↗
landing page · from data nasa gov
- DOI doi.org/10.48322/h28x-0w82 ↗
DOI / persistent id · from data nasa gov
Catalogue records · 1
- CKAN API data.nasa.gov/api/3/action/package_show?id=19567a89-1a3b-4f28-abb9-8b3648a1f… ↗
metadata API · from data nasa gov
Topics
- From keywords
- Astronomy & Astrophysics · Earth & Environmental Science · Ocean & Atmospheric Science · Physics
- Inferred from text
- Longitudinal study 65% · Space sciences 70%
Provenance · 1 source records, 12 field assertions
| Source | Key | Last seen | Raw |
|---|---|---|---|
| NASA Data Portal | 19567a89-1a3b-4f28-abb9-8b3648a1f0bc | 9 d ago | JSON v1 |
| Field | Assertion | Extractor | Evidence |
|---|---|---|---|
| concepts[field].anzsrc:group:5109 | enrichment · data nasa gov | taxonomy-embedding@1.0.0 | title+keywords+description (70%) |
| concepts[field].local:field:astronomy | mapping · data nasa gov | connector:data_nasa_gov@1.0.0 | |
| concepts[field].local:field:earth-environmental | mapping · data nasa gov | connector:data_nasa_gov@1.0.0 | |
| concepts[field].local:field:ocean-atmospheric | mapping · data nasa gov | connector:data_nasa_gov@1.0.0 | |
| concepts[field].local:field:physics | mapping · data nasa gov | connector:data_nasa_gov@1.0.0 | |
| concepts[method].local:method:longitudinal-study | enrichment · data nasa gov | keyword-concept-rules@1.0.0 | title+description (65%) |
| created_date | source · data nasa gov | connector:data_nasa_gov@1.0.0 | |
| description | source · data nasa gov | connector:data_nasa_gov@1.0.0 | /notes |
| license_text | source · data nasa gov | connector:data_nasa_gov@1.0.0 | |
| publication_date | source · data nasa gov | connector:data_nasa_gov@1.0.0 | |
| title | source · data nasa gov | connector:data_nasa_gov@1.0.0 | /title |
| updated_date | source · data nasa gov | connector:data_nasa_gov@1.0.0 |