When the solar wind comes to Earth it meets an obstacle more than 10 times the size of the Earth- the magnetosphere. The magnetosphere is the region in space where the Earth's magnetic field balances the pressure of the solar wind. The solar magnetic field is carried outward from the sun by the solar wind. The magnetosphere encloses the Earth and causes particles coming from the sun to be deflected around the Earth. The magnetopause separates the Earth's magnetic field from the sun's magnetic field.
Most particles travel down the length of the tail and out into interplanetary space.
However, some solar wind particles pass through funnel-like openings at the North and South poles, releasing tremendous energy into the ionosphere. It allows you to select a subset from the availble OMNI data to view as a plot or to retrieve. 4-5 days it is not in the solar wind and therefore not collecting data. There are 11 instruments on IMP 8 that measure solar wind magnetic fields, plasmas and energetic particles. Then you enter dates for a specific time period and how you want the data to be averaged, hourly or daily.