Solar Orbiter/SDCA

SWA instrument suite onboard Solar Orbiter will provide Solar Wind plasma measurements thanks to : 

The Electron Analyser System (EAS), a pair of top-hat electrostatic analysers, measuring electron fluxes in the energy range from ~1 eV to ~5 keV;

The Proton-Alpha Sensor (PAS), a top-hat electrostatic analyzer designed to measure the full 3-D velocity distribution functions of major solar wind species, protons and alpha particles in the energy range 0.2 – 20 keV/q;The Heavy Ion sensor (HIS), an electrostatic analyser module, measuring five key properties for all ions: mass in the range 2-56 amu/q, charge (q), energy in the range 0.5 – 100 keV/q (for azimuth) and 0.5 – 16 keV/q (for elevation), and direction of incidence.

The SWA Operation Centre will be located at UCL/MSSL in the UK. In addition, the SWA Science Data Centre and Archive (SDCA), located at IRAP (France), and its mirror site at SWRI, will be responsible for the curation and archiving of all SWA data products, and will provide the interface for SWA data products to the ESA archive, NSSDC and the science community.

The SWA team is committed to making data available to the entire scientific community as quickly as possible, and to sharing educational data products and information with the public in a timely and appealing manner. The data processing plan combine production of merged data products at SDCA (see Figure). The data set will be archived at the SDCA and mirrored at SWRI and other Co-I sites and accessible on-line.

In the course of data analysis, the SWA team will produce models that are required to understand and interpret the observations. Upon verification, these models will also be provided to the SWA SDCA for archiving and public access. The team will treat these models as another Level-2 data product, which will be verified before they are accessible to the general public. The SWA OC and SDCA provide the data management for the SWA team. SWA SO and SDCA personnel will be responsible for writing and maintaining the Project Data Management Plan and will advise the PI on the choice of appropriate data formats and data storage and distribution mechanisms. The SWA PI will be responsible for ensuring that the sensor teams provide data to SWA SDCA in a timely fashion. The SWA SDCA will provide a point of contact for collecting science news items from the investigators. The SWA OC and SDCA will assist the PI by providing inputs for the definition and implementation of the science operations planning, and data handling and archiving concepts. The SDCA will be responsible for monitoring and reporting to the SWA PI on the use of SWA data in order that required reporting requirements of ESA and the national agencies can be met in a timely fashion.

(excerpts from the Solar Orbiter / SWA proposal to ESA).