Pioneer Venus Hourly Averaged Plasma Data

Description

This collection consists of hourly-averaged plasma data obtained by the Pioneer Venus Orbiter plasma analyzer (OPA) experiment. The data consist of hourly-averages of the derived plasma parameters for every spectrum returned by the OPA.

Each record consists of 30 words which include the spacecraft ID, the date of the record, the hour of the day (spacecraft event time) at the start of the record, reserved (but not used) space for the magnetic field and its azimuthal and polar angles, the proton temperature (K), and the plasma density (cm-3), bulk speed (km/sec), and azimuthal and polar flow angles (degrees). Also included in each record is the RMS dispersion of the derived, averaged quantities. Parameters measured inside the Cytherian bow shock are not to be regarded to be reliable. These data have not been flagged in this version of the data set. It is the responsibility of the user to identify and exclude these points, either by reference to magnetic field observations or by the use of an idealized model of Cytherian bow shock.

The summary data from which these hourly averages were derived are available as collection SPHE-00315. The data are available as a single unformatted ASCII file.