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Mars Global Surveyor Solar Wind Proxy Pressures

Metadata Updated: April 10, 2026

Derivation of the solar wind dynamic pressure at Mars using Mars Global Surveyor data. There is no upstream solar wind monitor at Mars (as of the release of this data set). This data set is a proxy for the solar wind dynamic pressure derived from Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Magnetometer (MAG) measurements. The rationale behind the proxy is that pressure is conserved in the solar wind interaction with Mars. At altitudes from ~400-800 km, the dominant pressure term is magnetic field pressure. We measure the magnetic field with MAG, calculate the pressure (B2/2µo) in that altitude range and assume that it balances the incident solar wind pressure. This proxy is reliable for determining relative solar wind pressure at Mars. Absolute values may deviate from the proxy. The pressure does drop with solar zenith angle (SZA). This affect is accounted for by fitting a function of SZA to the dayside, northern hemisphere data from an MGS pass. The number of points included in the fit is provided in the file. The standard deviation from the fit is also provided. Because we do a fit to one orbit's worth of dayside, northern hemisphere data, we obtain one value for PSW every orbit, which has a period of ~2 hr.

Access & Use Information

Public: This dataset is intended for public access and use. License: See this page for license information.

Downloads & Resources

No file downloads have been provided. The publisher may provide downloads in the future or they may be available from their other links.

Dates

Metadata Created Date March 13, 2026
Metadata Updated Date April 10, 2026

Metadata Source

Harvested from NASA Data.json

Additional Metadata

Resource Type Dataset
Metadata Created Date March 13, 2026
Metadata Updated Date April 10, 2026
Publisher VHO and VMO Data Repository at NASA/GSFC
Maintainer
Identifier /SDE/SPASE_JSON/|cf9d5079846c5142aa0558a032c8127f
Data Last Modified 2026-04-06
Category Heliophysics
Public Access Level public
Bureau Code 026:00
Metadata Context https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.jsonld
Schema Version https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
Catalog Describedby https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.json
Harvest Object Id 6e85396a-e0b3-49f3-b86a-35feaab53a01
Harvest Source Id 58f92550-7a01-4f00-b1b2-8dc953bd598f
Harvest Source Title NASA Data.json
License https://www.usa.gov/government-works
Program Code 026:000
Source Datajson Identifier True
Source Hash b2202247dbefe2670dc56a8ace406587fcf2b9118704a9f96489afdfc6b50a4e
Source Schema Version 1.1

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