Pioneer 10 Ultraviolet Photometer Cruise Data Set

Description

This data set contains daily averages of the interplanetary cruise archive data from the Pioneer 10 UV photometer from spacecraft launch onward. These data are used to study the interaction of the solar wind with the interstellar medium by measurements of spatial and temporal variations of the intensity of backscattered solar Lyman alpha emission at 1216 A and of the solar Helium line at 584 A. Daily averages of counting rates from the short (< 800 A) and long (<1400 A) wavelength channels are included along with ephemeris data in ASCII data files corresponding to one year of data per file. The long and short wavelength channels are dominated by the 1216 A and 584 A emissions, respectively, in interplanetary space. The conversion factors between counts/sec and Rayleighs for the two channels, as determined by a pre-launch calibration with a radioisotope thermogenerator, are: Rayleighs = (counts/sec - 3.)/4.9 for 1216 A, and Rayleighs = (counts/sec - 3.)/7.3 for 584 A. ASCII text files in Standard Formatted data Unit (SFDU) metadata format describe the spacecraft mission, the UV photometer experiment, and the parameters and format of this data set. These data are on-line at the NSSDC Anonymous FTP site, accessible either at anonymous@nssdcftp.gsfc.nasa.gov in directory spacecraft_data/pioneer10/uv/ or via the web at the following location:

http://nssdcftp.gsfc.nasa.gov/spacecraft_data/pioneer/pioneer10/uv/