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Validation of the DSCOVR Spacecraft Mission Space Weather Solar Wind Products
  • +6
  • Paul T.M. Loto'aniu,
  • Kristine Romich,
  • William Rowland,
  • Stefan M Codrescu,
  • Douglas A Biesecker,
  • Jeffrey M. Johnson,
  • Howard J. Singer,
  • Adam Szabo,
  • Michael Louis Stevens
Paul T.M. Loto'aniu
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)

Corresponding Author:[email protected]

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Kristine Romich
University of Colorado
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William Rowland
CU/CIRES supporting NOAA/NESDIS/NGDC/STP
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Stefan M Codrescu
University of Colorado Boulder
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Douglas A Biesecker
NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center
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Jeffrey M. Johnson
University of colorado
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Howard J. Singer
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
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Adam Szabo
Goddard Space Flight Center (NASA)
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Michael Louis Stevens
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
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Abstract

In this paper, we present a statistical validation of the DSCOVR solar wind data in the operational space weather archive. The DSCOVR observations of the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF), solar wind velocity, density, and temperature were hourly averaged and compared to measurements from NASA’s ACE and Wind spacecraft. Hourly averages, in general, show good correlations between the satellites for the IMF, solar wind velocity GSE vx-component, and density. During the period covered by this study (spanning from late July 2016, when DSCOVR went operational, to the end of 2020), the DSCOVR products show no clear evidence of permanent degradation. However, for plasma parameters there were periods of disagreement with ACE and Wind. The correlation coefficients (Pearson’s r) calculated over the entire study period were similar or the same between DSCOVR versus Wind and DSCOVR versus ACE. For comparisons between DSCOVR and Wind, the IMF Bx and By GSE r were 0.94 and 0.96, respectively, while r for the IMF GSE Bz-component was 0.88. For solar wind velocity, r was found to be 0.96 for the GSE vx-component, compared with 0.30 for vy and 0.33 for vz. For density, r was found to be 0.84. DSCOVR density observations tend to overestimate compared to Wind values when the solar wind densities are low (below ∼5 /cc), while agreement between the two spacecraft on IMF measurements tend to increase with decreasing spatial separation.