Information
about STEREO-A close approach to Earth, August 2023
S/WAVES Resources
This is a list of links to resource pages for the STEREO WAVES (S/WAVES)
instrument, where both descriptions of the instrument and "How To"
hints can be found.
Instrument/Hardware description
Instrument papers:
Data file descriptions
- References on file formats used.
- STEREO/WAVES 1-minute average files
One minute averages of the STEREO/WAVES data from the low (lfr) and high (hfr)
frequency receivers are produced in daily files. For each spacecraft, there
are 3 files produced each day: (1) an ASCII file of the lfr data (48 channels),
(2) an ASCII file of the hfr data (319 channels), and (3) and IDL 'sav' file
that is the sum of lfr and hfr (367 channels) combined into one. The naming
convention for the files is:
stereo-a (or b)_swaves_lfr_average_YYYYMMDD_vNN.txt for the lfr ASCII data Ahead (Behind)
stereo-a (or b)_swaves_hfr_average_YYYYMMDD_vNN.txt for the hfr ASCII data Ahead (Behind)
stereo-a (or b)_swaves_hfr-lfr_average_YYYMMDD_vNN.sav for the lfr+hfr IDL version
where YYYYMMDD represents the date, and NN represents the version number.
Each file contains (a) a list of the frequencies in the file (in kHz), (b) the
background value used in (currently) arbitrary decibel (dB) units, (c) the
2-dimensional (# of frequencies X 1440 minutes per day) array of averages in dB
above the average (i.e. value-average in dB). Missing data is indicated by a
value less than 0.
The specific format for the ASCII files is:
- f9.1 for frequencies (so, 48f9.1 for lfr or 319f9.1 for hfr)
- f8.3 for backgrounds (so, 48f8.3 or 319 f8.3)
- f8.3 for the data with each frequency line preceded with an i4 value
indicating the start minute of the averaging bin (thus, (i4,48f8.3) repeated
1440 times for lfr and (i4,319f8.3) repeated 1440 times for hfr)
The IDL sav files are self-evident after the usual 'restore' command.
- STEREO/WAVES Time Domain Sampler files
Time domain sampler files are available in ASCII format. The naming
convention for the files is:
stereo-a (or b)_swaves_tds_average_YYYYMMDD_vNN.txt for the tds ASCII data Ahead (Behind)
- Data file calibration status.
S/WAVES level 0 data is in telemetry counts. We make no permanent level 1
file; rather this is created on the fly with the S/WAVES TMlib package
(available from U of Minn -- require IDL)
- Suggested method for reading data
1-minute averages are simple ASCII as documented above
Level 0 data through TMlib
- Data source
All available through
STEREO and
S/WAVES web sites.
(See also old S/WAVES
site). Additionally, 1-minute averages are served by
CDAWeb.
Software
- Recommended software and where to get it.
We will make dynamic spectra plotting program available (IDL). TMlib
available from U of Minn -- contact goetz@waves.space.umn.edu for set-up
advice.
- Alternative software
CDAWeb has their own version of dynamic spectrum program and can create
tailored plots.
- Calibration
Absolute calibration still in progress. All values currently in
relative calibration
Contact for help
A contact email for those still having problems:
Keith Goetz, goetz@umn.edu
Last Revised: Friday, 02-Dec-2022 22:03:02 UTC
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