Ulysses/SWICS Archive Data

Archive Data Description

This archive consists of all 18 Matrix Rates (MR) as a function of energy per charge (E/q) and of time. Each MR represents a specific element in one or several ionization states, but it may also contain significant contributions from neighbouring elements due to spillover. The MRs are given in units of count rates only. The accompanying SAPRO (SWICS Archive Processor) software can be used both to convert the MR count rates to physical units (differential flux, phase space density), to correct for spillover between different MRs, and to obtain kinetic parameters (density, speed, thermal speed) of selected ions. These data can reasonably be used only in collaboration with a member of the Ulysses/SWICS team. Additional information about the Ulysses/SWICS data analysis can be found in the following JGR publication by R. von Steiger et al..

Archive Data Format

The data in the Ulysses/SWICS archive is stored in the National Space Science Data Center (NSSDC) developed Common Data Format (CDF), which is the standard format for the long time archiving of space related scientific data. The CDF data format is self-describing and can be used for storage and manipulation of scalar and multidimensional data in a platform- and discipline- independent fashion. The latest specification and tools for the CDF data format can be found at the Space Physics Data Facility. The documentation of the Ulysses/SWICS archive used CDF version 2.6.7 can be found in the archive DVD '/doc' directory. The current version of the CDF specification and software library is 3.x, but as all newer versions are backward compatible with earlier releases, this is of no concern for the Ulysses/SWICS archive.
The SAGEN software implicitly uses the '/doc/uy_glg.skt' skeleton file for the generation of the CDF data files. Each CDF archive file covers a data period of one day. If, for a particular day, no SWICS data could be acquired, a conforming but empty CDF gap files is created (see log files for details).

Available Archive Data Files