GOES Plot Summary

The summary is updated every hour.

Each web page has 6 plots in the following general form:

• Top left – the electron flux (colour coded) as a function of L* and time, at a selected energy and pitch angle of 88 degrees taken from the BAS-RBM. Here L* is very approximately equal to the distance from the centre of the Earth along the equatorial plane measured in Earth radii. L* is part of a magnetic coordinate system based on the drift path of electrons. To a first approximation electrons drift around the Earth following a path of constant magnetic field which corresponds to a fixed value of L*. As the geomagnetic field is stronger on the dayside of the Earth electrons on the same drift path are farther away from the Earth on the dayside and closer on the nightside. Thus a satellite at geostationary orbit samples electrons with a lower L* on the dayside. As the electron flux usually peaks near L* = 4.5 – 5.0 satellites at geostationary orbit are exposed to a higher electron flux on the dayside. The location of the satellite is shown as a black dashed line in this coordinate system. Noon and midnight magnetic local time (MLT) are indicated along the top. When the outer boundary of the geomagnetic field lies inside L* = 8 it is indicated by a solid white line.
• Middle left – (in red) the electron flux at the location of the satellite from the model, and (in black) satellite observations when they are available.
• Bottom left - the Kp index of geomagnetic activity, colour coded according to activity level.
• Top right – (in red) the solar wind velocity measured by the DSCOVR spacecraft at the Lagrange 1 position in the solar wind and (in black) the z component of the interplanetary magnetic field.
• Middle right – (in red) the solar wind dynamic pressure measured by DSCOVR spacecraft and (in black) the Dst index which is used to identify geomagnetic storms.
• Bottom right - the proton flux greater than 10 MeV measured by the GOES spacecraft. The proton flux is an indicator of a solar energetic particle event and also acts as a quality flag on the electron flux measured by the GOES spacecraft. When the proton flux exceeds 10¹ cm^-2 s^-1 sr^-1 the electron flux greater than 2 MeV measured by the GOES satellites becomes unreliable due to proton contamination.