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Solar Wind Parker-Spiral Tracker (2D)

A top-down 2D companion to the Solar Wind Lab: the same tan(ψ) = Ω·r / v Parker-spiral formula drives fast coronal-hole and slow streamer-belt streams across a flat plane, with an L1 spacecraft sampling speed and density before the wind reaches Earth's bow shock.

Space & Astronomy2DModerate60 FPS📱 Mobile-adapted⇄ 3D version

This 2D companion strips the Solar Wind Lab down to a flat, top-down map: the Sun sits at the left, Earth at the right, and the same tan(ψ) = Ω·r / v spiral formula bends each particle's outward path as the Sun rotates beneath it. Fast coronal-hole wind and slow streamer-belt wind wind into differently-curved spirals, and a small L1 marker between the Sun and Earth samples whichever stream is passing, refreshing its speed and density readout a few times a second — the same real-time "advance warning" role real L1 missions like ACE and DSCOVR play.

⚙ Under the hood

A 2D top-down companion to the 3D Solar Wind Lab: the same Parker-spiral formula and L1 sampling logic run on a flat plane instead of an orbiting 3D scene.

solar windParker spiralplasmaL1 spacecraftmagnetospherespace weather

2D · HTML5 Canvas 2D · 60 FPS target · runs fully client-side, no install