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Data Access
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Helios 2 E3 Magnetometer (Ness et al.) 1-hr Data
var authors='Ness, Norman F.; Mariani, Franco';
document.write(authors);
(2025).
Helios 2 E3 Magnetometer (Ness et al.) 1-hr Data.
[Data set].
Space Physics Data Facility.
https://doi.org/10.48322/q291-2s63. Accessed on document.write(currentDateStr);.
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ResourceID
spase://NASA/NumericalData/Helios2/E3/PT1H
Description
Task of the HELIOS mission was the exploration of the inner heliosphere, inside the Earth's orbit to 0.3 AU. The Rome-GSFC magnetic field experiment has been a joint venture of an italian group (University of Rome and CNR/Istituto Fisica Spazio Interplanetario, Frascati) and an american group of NASA/Goddard Space Fligth Center, under the responsibility of F. Mariani and N.F.Ness, respectively. A description of the experiment can be found in the NASA-GSFC report X-692-75-112 (1975), by C. Scearce et al. The instrument is a dual configuration of two tri-axial fluxgate magnetometers operating at four different sensitivities (from 0.84 to 0.03 nT). The time resolution, depending the operation mode, telemetry format, and bit rate, for most cases varied from 0.07 to 1.5 seconds. This data set contains hour-averaged magnetic field vectors from the the Ness/Mariani experiment on Helios 1 [or 2]. Each record contains time, magnetic field intensity and cartesian components in spacecraft-centered solar ecliptic coordinates, standard deviations, numbers of fine-scale points in the average, and an instrument mode indicator. It should be noted that the "average" mode, which was used a minority of the time and involved on-board averaging, may have incorrectly handled range changes caused by occasional significant changes in ambient field intensity. The data set had not been filtered for this effect upon delivery to NSSDC. The data files are named either HE1MGA.asc, for one file covering the entire 1974 - 1981 period, or HE1MGAyy.asc, for one year intervals of data.
Metadata Rights
CC0-1.0:
Creative Commons Zero v1.0 Universal
Note
CC0 1.0 Universal is the Creative Commons license applicable to all publicly available SPASE metadata descriptions. The actual data/software may be subject to a different license.
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Details
Version:2.7.1
NumericalData
ResourceID
spase://NASA/NumericalData/Helios2/E3/PT1H
NamingAuthority
NASA
ResourceType
NumericalData
ResourceHeader
ResourceName
Helios 2 E3 Magnetometer (Ness et al.) 1-hr Data
DOI
https://doi.org/10.48322/q291-2s63
ReleaseDate
2025-12-04 13:29:20Z
RevisionHistory
RevisionEvent
ReleaseDate
2021-03-11 18:39:11Z
Note
Only known prior ReleaseDate of the metadata
RevisionEvent
ReleaseDate
2025-11-14 16:02:22Z
Note
Added PublicationInfo. Added ResourceType and NamingAuthority. Changed http to https in top-level schemaLocation attribute. Fixed version number separator in top-level schemaLocation attribute. Matched version number in schemaLocation attribute to updated value in Version tag. ZCB
RevisionEvent
ReleaseDate
2025-12-04 13:29:20Z
Note
Added MetadataRightsList and RightsList(s). Updated to 2.7.1. ZCB
Description
Task of the HELIOS mission was the exploration of the inner heliosphere, inside the Earth's orbit to 0.3 AU. The Rome-GSFC magnetic field experiment has been a joint venture of an italian group (University of Rome and CNR/Istituto Fisica Spazio Interplanetario, Frascati) and an american group of NASA/Goddard Space Fligth Center, under the responsibility of F. Mariani and N.F.Ness, respectively. A description of the experiment can be found in the NASA-GSFC report X-692-75-112 (1975), by C. Scearce et al. The instrument is a dual configuration of two tri-axial fluxgate magnetometers operating at four different sensitivities (from 0.84 to 0.03 nT). The time resolution, depending the operation mode, telemetry format, and bit rate, for most cases varied from 0.07 to 1.5 seconds. This data set contains hour-averaged magnetic field vectors from the the Ness/Mariani experiment on Helios 1 [or 2]. Each record contains time, magnetic field intensity and cartesian components in spacecraft-centered solar ecliptic coordinates, standard deviations, numbers of fine-scale points in the average, and an instrument mode indicator. It should be noted that the "average" mode, which was used a minority of the time and involved on-board averaging, may have incorrectly handled range changes caused by occasional significant changes in ambient field intensity. The data set had not been filtered for this effect upon delivery to NSSDC. The data files are named either HE1MGA.asc, for one file covering the entire 1974 - 1981 period, or HE1MGAyy.asc, for one year intervals of data.
PublicationInfo
Authors
Ness, Norman F.; Mariani, Franco
PublicationDate
2025-11-14 16:02:22Z
PublishedBy
Space Physics Data Facility
Contacts
Role
Person
StartDate
StopDate
Note
1.
PrincipalInvestigator
spase://SMWG/Person/Norman.F.Ness
2.
CoInvestigator
spase://SMWG/Person/Franco.Mariani
InformationURL
Name
Data set page at SPDF
URL
https://spdf.gsfc.nasa.gov/pub/data/helios/helios2/mag/hour_ness/he2mga_fmt.txt
Description
Data set page at SPDF
InformationURL
Name
Readme file at SPDF
URL
https://spdf.gsfc.nasa.gov/pub/data/helios/helios2/mag/hour_ness/he2mga_fmt.txt
PriorIDs
spase://VHO/NumericalData/Helios2/E3/PT1H
spase://VSPO/NumericalData/Helios2/E3/PT1H
spase://VSPO/NumericalData/P_HELIOS2_HDR_E3_MAG_1HR
spase://VSPO/NumericalData/Helios2/E3/PT1H
AccessInformation
RepositoryID
spase://SMWG/Repository/NASA/GSFC/SPDF
Availability
Online
AccessRights
Open
RightsList
Rights
SchemeURI
https://spdx.org/licenses/
RightsIdentifierScheme
SPDX
RightsIdentifier
CC0-1.0
RightsURI
https://spdx.org/licenses/CC0-1.0.html
RightsName
Creative Commons Zero v1.0 Universal
Note
CC0 1.0 Universal is the Creative Commons license applicable to all publicly available NASA Heliophysics data products
AccessURL
Name
FTPS from SPDF (not with most browsers)
URL
ftps://spdf.gsfc.nasa.gov/pub/data/helios/helios2/mag/hour_ness/
Description
Via SPDF ftp
AccessURL
Name
HTTPS from SPDF
URL
https://spdf.gsfc.nasa.gov/pub/data/helios/helios2/mag/hour_ness/
Description
In CDF via HTTP from SPDF
Format
Text.ASCII
InstrumentIDs
spase://SMWG/Instrument/Helios2/E3
MeasurementType
MagneticField
TemporalDescription
TimeSpan
StartDate
1976-01-17 00:00:00Z
StopDate
1980-03-08 23:59:59Z
Cadence
PT1H
ObservedRegion
Heliosphere.Inner
Parameter #1
Name
Helios number
ParameterKey
Column_1
Description
Number of the Helios spacecraft (1 or 2)
Support
SupportQuantity
Other
Parameter #2
Name
Year
ParameterKey
Column_2
Description
Two digit year
Support
SupportQuantity
Temporal
Parameter #3
Name
Day of Year
ParameterKey
Column_3
Description
Day of year (1=jan 1st)
Support
SupportQuantity
Temporal
Parameter #4
Name
Hour
ParameterKey
Column_4
Description
hour of data point
Support
SupportQuantity
Temporal
Parameter #5
Name
Bxse
ParameterKey
Column_5
Description
X Component of the magnetic field in SE Coordinates
CoordinateSystem
CoordinateRepresentation
Cartesian
CoordinateSystemName
SE
Field
Qualifier
Component.I
FieldQuantity
Magnetic
Parameter #6
Name
Byse
ParameterKey
Column_6
Description
Y Component of the magnetic field in SE Coordinates
CoordinateSystem
CoordinateRepresentation
Cartesian
CoordinateSystemName
SE
Field
Qualifier
Component.J
FieldQuantity
Magnetic
Parameter #7
Name
Bzse
ParameterKey
Column_7
Description
Z Component of the magnetic field in SE Coordinates
CoordinateSystem
CoordinateRepresentation
Cartesian
CoordinateSystemName
SE
Field
Qualifier
Component.K
FieldQuantity
Magnetic
Parameter #8
Name
B
ParameterKey
Column_8
Description
Field magnitude average
CoordinateSystem
CoordinateRepresentation
Cartesian
CoordinateSystemName
SE
Field
Qualifier
Magnitude
FieldQuantity
Magnetic
Parameter #9
Name
Standard Deviation in Field Vector
ParameterKey
Column_9
Description
sqrt(StD(Bx)**2+StD(By)**2+StD(Bz)**2) where StD=standard deviation
CoordinateSystem
CoordinateRepresentation
Cartesian
CoordinateSystemName
SE
Field
Qualifier
StandardDeviation
FieldQuantity
Magnetic
Parameter #10
Name
Standard Deviation of Field Magnitude
ParameterKey
Column_10
Description
Standard deviation of Field Magnitude
CoordinateSystem
CoordinateRepresentation
Cartesian
CoordinateSystemName
SE
Field
Qualifier
StandardDeviation
Qualifier
Magnitude
FieldQuantity
Magnetic
Parameter #11
Name
N
ParameterKey
Column_11
Description
Number of 6-sec averages in the hourly average
Support
SupportQuantity
Other
Parameter #12
Name
N
ParameterKey
Column_12
Description
Mode: 0=detailed, 1=average
Support
SupportQuantity
Other