As there is no way for scientists to image the tenuous solar wind that’s closing in on our planet, NASA and NOAA sent two satellites some 1.5 million kilometers from Earth on the path of the incoming solar wind to probe it. Monitoring and analyzing the magnetic and plasma properties of the arriving solar wind are key to predicting the geomagnetic and the auroral activity about an hour ahead. This page offers only a ‘quick look’ at Real-Time Solar Wind data for experienced users. For more detailed and explanatory solar wind data, please make your way to ‘Space Weather’ > ‘The Solar Wind’. This page displays solar wind metrics like Bt, Bx, By, Bz, density, speed, dynamic pressure, temperature, Phi and Theta angles. You can make some metrics appear and disappear by clicking on them. Data & errors: All data points can be read by placing your mouse / pointer line on them. Values, time and potential data error will be displayed in respective captions. Errors will also be displayed in the graphs as a red (identified error), yellow (suspected error) or orange (density error) underlays. Times & timescale: All dates are displayed in your local time. The delay between the white, vertical ‘at Earth’ line and the right-end of the graph represents the time it takes for the solar wind to propagate from the L1 satellites to the magnetosphere. Please keep in mind that this time is only approximative, as the wind speed constantly changes. You can change the timescale by clicking on the dropdown menu at the bottom left corner of the page. Within this selected time range, you can pick and adjust the timespan by grabbing the handles on the left and right-hand sides of the gray timebar. You can also zoom in and out with the mouse wheel (or use two fingers on a trackpad). On mobile devices, you can tap or drag to see the value and you can use two fingers to navigate left or right in the graph. The timebar has a miniature version of the Bt line embedded in it so you know where to navigate when time spans are great. Active Satellites: As there are two different satellites, it is normal to see discrepancies between ACE and DSCOVR data. NOAA’s algorithms decide which one of the two displays as active. By selecting ‘Auto’ in the second drop down menu down left, you allow NOAA to choose for you. You can also choose yourself to see either ACE or DSCOVR data. In the different data graphs, we added a gray line in the backdrop, which corresponds to what the other satellite reads. This is very practical in situations where you have ‘Auto’ selected and NOAA switches from one active satellite to the other. That way, you can determine right away if there has been a satellite switch, an error or an actual change / disruption in the solar wind. As some of the instruments on board both satellites can be prone to errors and data gaps, having the gray line also enables you to check data accuracy at all times. The input data of this graph was generated by and belongs to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) https://www.noaa.gov/ , specifically the Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/. We thank NOAA for giving us access to such data.