June 19, 2003 To ensure continued operational monitoring of important energetic particle data, it is necessary to reassign primary/secondary designations for the GOES Space Environment Monitor (SEM) detectors. Beginning 1700 UTC on June 19, GOES 11 (105W) will become the primary satellite for protons. GOES 12 (75W) will continue as the primary satellite for magnetometer, X-ray, and electron measurements. GOES 10 (135W) will be the secondary satellite for all SEM sensors - magnetometer, X-ray, and energetic particles. Because of the degraded state of the proton data on GOES-10, its designation as the secondary source for proton data is a short-term solution. More permanent solutions have been identified and are being evaluated. Users will be notified when we define and schedule a permanent fix. May 15, 2003 See http://sec.noaa.gov/Data/ for tables of all online data at SEC, including links to non-SEC sources for older data. ======================================================================== GOES 12/10 Designated SEC's Primary/Secondary GOES Satellites GOES 8 energetic protons available again May 15 -- GOES 12 is now SEC's primary GOES satellite, except for energetic proton detectors where GOES 8 is primary. GOES 10 is the backup. The GOES 10 energetic proton detectors are showing intermittent, high noise levels in the higher energy proton channels (greater than about 80 MeV). This problem was first noticed in data taken April 26, 2003 See 2003 Proton Plots: via ftp cd /pub/plots/2003_plots/proton or http://www.sec.noaa.gov/ftpmenu/plots/2003_plots/proton.html This pattern is similar to problems experienced on the GOES 12 EPS Dome detector prior its P6 and P7 channel failures earlier this year. The loss of the P6 and P7 channels significantly impacts SEC's integral proton flux products above about 10 MeV (e.g., >10 MeV, >50 MeV, and >100 MeV). Therefore, we are acquiring energetic proton data from old GOES 8 satellite. GOES 8 differential proton flux and integral proton flux data are available in the /lists/pchan and /lists/particle directories. GOES 8 is used in Proton Flux plots. The electron processing algorithm has been modified in response to the high noise level that recently developed in the GOES 12, P6 proton channel. Caution should be used when interpreting the GOES-10 and 12 energetic proton data. One indication of the presence of high noise levels in the absence of a true enhancement in the proton flux is that all of the integral flux products above about 10 MeV (e.g., >10 MeV, >50 MeV, and >100 MeV) show nearly equal values, due to the fact that all of these derived integral fluxes are being dominated by the same high noise levels in the highest energy measurements. For detailed information see http://www.sec.noaa.gov/GOES.html ====================================================================== !!!!! NOTICE GOES Satellite Changes !!!!! !!!!! GOES 8 Ends, GOES 12 Begins !!!!! April 8, SEC stopped using GOES 8 data. GOES 10 is now SEC's primary GOES satellite, with GOES 12 the backup for magnetometer, XRS x-ray measurements, and energetic particle data. See details at http://www.sec.noaa.gov/GOES.html SEC tracks two GOES satellites and designates one as the primary and the other the secondary GOES satellite. With the switch from GOES 8 to GOES 12, the primary/secondary designations will change. GOES 10 will be the primary satellite and GOES 12 the secondary for magnetometer, XRS x-ray measurements, and energetic particles. This includes all of the GOES electron, proton, and alpha particle data. However, due to the failure of the P6 and P7 proton channels on GOES 12, no GOES 12 Intergral Proton or Electron Flux data is available. Users should be aware that GOES 10 data differ somewhat from GOES 8 data in two ways. First, the energetic particle detectors that are used for our operational products have a westward look direction on GOES 8 as opposed to an eastward look direction on GOES 10. Because of the different look directions, the flux measurements can differ during energetic particle events. The general flux profiles throughout particle events are similar in the GOES 8 and GOES 10 measurements; however, the GOES 10 measurements on average tend to show somewhat lower flux levels. For the largest events, the event starting times, peak flux levels, and times of the peak fluxes are similar. The electron measurements also differ somewhat between GOES 8 and GOES 10. This difference is due to the different geomagnetic latitudes of the two spacecraft. Both GOES 8 and GOES 10 are located on the geographic equator, but due to the tilt of Earth's dipole magnetic field, GOES 10 (at 135 degrees west longitude) is at a lower geomagnetic latitude than GOES 8 (at 75 degrees west longitude). Because of the different geomagnetic latitudes, GOES 10 on average measures a slightly larger electron flux than GOES 8. The relative variations in flux from time to time are roughly similar at the two spacecraft locations. ============================================================================== GOES 5-minute energetic particle and electron data lists update every 5 minutes. The file format follows the SEC data list convention where header lines start with either # or :. The daily files are named with the UT day of the data and the GOES spacecraft identification number. G10 for GOES 10 (primary SEC GOES spacecraft). No G12 files. The files with no date contain data for the last 2-hours. Users retrieving data frequently are requested to use the short 2-hour files. Date/times Dates are shown as year month day (2003 09 06) and "Modified Julian Day (MJD) as defined in an early SEC database. The SEC MJD for Jan 1, 2003 is 52640 The SEC MJD for Jan 1, 2004 is 53005 Time is shown as HourMin (0035) and seconds of the day (2100) GOES data are archived at the National Geophysical Data Center http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/stp Your comments and suggestions are welcome. Thank you, Viola.J.Raben@noaa.gov