This data set holds hourly data for the interplanetary solar wind near Venus from the Plasma Analyzer (OPA)
experiment on the Pioneer Venus Orbiter spacecraft. Data coverage includes cruise (enroute to Venus from Earth, May - Dec. 1978) and orbital (Dec. 1978 to
Oct. 1992) mission phases up through loss of telemetry on Oct. 8, 1992 before atmospheric entry. The data consist of hourly-averages of the derived plasma parameters for every spectrum returned by the OPA. Each record consists of the spacecraft ID, the date of the record, the hour of the day (spacecraft event time) at the start of the record, reserved (but not used) space for the magnetic field and its azimuthal and polar angles, the proton temperature (K), and the plasma density (cm-3), bulk speed (km/sec), and azimuthal and polar flow angles (degrees). Also included in each record is the RMS dispersion of the derived, averaged quantities. Measurements made inside the Venusian bow shock were mostly excluded. The ASCII hourly data here are described in plain text files (*.txt). Orbital data in heliocentric or Venus-centered coordinates are provided with both datatypes. The hourly data may also be browsed, plotted, and retrieved through the COHOWeb data system. Merged solar wind magnetic field and plasma data from PVO, transformed into more convenient heliographic/RTN coordinates, are available in COHO directory PIONEER_VENUS/MERGED.