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Helios 1 and 2 data revisited
Our mission is to provide the most comprehensive, single, archive of the in-situ Helios 1 and 2 data along with previously unavailable documentation on the different spacecraft instruments and their operation, datasets, and early data processing.
The Helios mission serves as a tremendous asset to the entire solar and heliophysics community. Its datasets withhold unique relevance for any study contextualizing and facilitating data analysis from Parker Solar Probe (PSP) and Solar Orbiter (SO) missions. With such importance to the community, Dr. Chadi Salem (Space Sciences Laboratory/UC Berkeley), was funded by a two-year NASA HDEE grant (NNX14AQ89G) to work on aggregating, analyzing, evaluating, documenting and archiving the available Helios 1 and 2 in-situ data. This project resulted in very close international collaboration with colleagues at the University of Koln (Germany), the University of Kiel (Germany), the Imperial College in London (UK), the LPC2E and University of Orléans (France), and at the Paris Observatory (France).
Up till now, there had been no public repository of all Helios data. Most high resolution data could be obtained from a variety of places, although with very little documentation, especially on calibration. Analysis of this data set requires overcoming a number of technical and instrumental issues, knowledge and expertise of which was only possessed by the original PI’s of the Helios experiments. Therefore, there was a sense of urgency to revisit and reanalyze this valuable dataset, and establish a long-term preservation before the knowledge was lost.
About the Archiving Process
A thorough reanalysis of the Helios in-situ datasets -- magnetic field and plasma measurements -- has been done prior to the archiving process to understand the dataset and their issues. The entire international team then met in Cologne for a workshop at the end of June 2016, to thoroughly discuss the reanalysis work, findings, issues and ways to address them, and the creation of the archive. The result of this workshop was a wealth of information, some of which was previously unavailable, that served as a foundation for the present archive.
The entire team came up with a list of issues and action items compiled by Chadi Salem (SSL/UC Berkeley) into a document, Action Item List, for the Helios data archive project. It serves as a concise overview of the progress that has been made in aggregating, analyzing, evaluating, documenting and archiving the available Helios 1 and 2 in-situ data.
Quick Access
Mission History
In the 1970's two spacecrafts were launched as part of an international effort to study investigated various solar parameters. The Mission History page is dedicated to introducing the Helios mission. Here you will find a brief overview of the mission, in-situ experiments, and orbits.
Data Reanalysis
Data Reanalysis provides progress updates, by experiment, on the Helios data reanalysis process; this is the essence of the Helios Data Archive website. Here you can find descriptions of the work done in reanalyzing the data and downloadable links to the referenced documentation.
Resources
A principal goal of this archive is to organize and provide easy access to the available Helios mission data and documentation. The Resources page organizes access to the various datasets, documentation, and additional resources gathered during this project.
Experiments
The Helios Mission had several in-situ experiments. Experiments is a section that acknowledges the principal investigators and provides brief descriptions of each experiment instrument.
Action Item List
The Action Item List serves as a concise overview of the progress that has been made in aggregating, analyzing, evaluating, documenting and archiving the available Helios 1 and 2 in-situ data.
Data Repository
All data and documentation is stored on a bare-bones HTTP directory. To improve ease of access, we created an on-site Repository, that details the available files with brief descriptions.
