Solar wind information is an important element in the arsenal of solar-terrestrial measurable quantities available to AFFECTS; specifically useful is the wind speed determined by the Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE) spacecraft at the L1 position.

ACE data and instrument descriptions are available on the following websites:
    > ACE Real Time Solar Wind http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/ace/
    > ACE Data Description http://www.srl.caltech.edu/ACE/ASC/level2/
    > ACE Data http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/ace/index.html

DLR Neustrelitz, as member of the Real Time Solar Wind network (RTSW), receives ACE data during daytime hours at the European sector (http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/ace/acetrack_48h.html) and transfers it to NOAA who are processing and archiving the data. Being privileged partner of NOAA, DLR is able to use real time ACE data. A direct data base connection to the NOAA External Space Weather Data Store (E-SWDS) is implemented in a special ACE processing module in the FSI, providing real time ACE data for operational FSI processing modules.

For further scientific use ACE data can be maintained using the online data access provided by the hyperlinks below.

• ACE NRT solar wind (current + 2-hour history)
    > http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/ftpdir/lists/ace/ace_swepam_1m.txt
    > ftp.swpc.noaa.gov/pub/lists/ace/ace_swepam_1m.txt
    > www.swpc.noaa.gov/ftpmenu/lists/ace.html/ ace_swepam_1m.txt

• ACE NRT IMF (current + 2-hour history)
    > http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/ftpdir/lists/ace/ace_mag_1m.txt
    > ftp.swpc.noaa.gov/pub/lists/ace/ace_mag_1m.txt
    > www.swpc.noaa.gov/ftpmenu/lists/ace.html/ ace_mag_1m.txt

• ACE NRT electron and proton fluxes (current + 2-hour history)
    > http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/ftpdir/lists/ace/ace_epam_5m.txt
    > ftp.swpc.noaa.gov/pub/lists/ace/ace_epam_5m.txt
    > http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/ftpmenu/lists/ace.html/ ace_epam_5m.txt

• ACE NRT high energy proton flux (current + 2-hour history)
    > http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/ftpdir/lists/ace/ace_sis_5m.txt
    > ftp.swpc.noaa.gov/pub/lists/ace/ace_sis_5m.txt
    > www.swpc.noaa.gov/ftpmenu/lists/ace.html/ ace_sis_5m.txt

• ACE History / Archive 
     > ftp://mussel.srl.caltech.edu/pub/ace/level2/

The ACE data is required for many tasks which are to be solved within AFFECTS. An overview is given in the table below.