Recent observations of the solar wind in the outer heliosphere

Details Recent observations of the solar wind in the outer heliosphere Recent observations of the solar wind in the outer heliosphere

Aug 1995

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1995adspr..16...77l&link_type=abstract

Advances in Space Research (ISSN 0273-1177), vol. 16, no. 9, p. (9)77-(9)84

Computer Science

8

Heliosphere, Long Term Effects, Propagation Velocity, Solar Wind, Explorer 50 Satellite, Periodic Variations, Pioneer Space Probes, Ulysses Mission, Voyager Project

Scientific paper

Observations made during recent years from the Voyager and Pioneer spacecraft in the distant heliosphere continue to show interesting and unexpected features. Although the solar wind number density shows considerable variation from day to day, the radial variation of the proton number density (near the ecliptic) is consistent with a 1/R squared decrease. The temperature of the wind varies approximately as R-0.5; it seems clear that wind at higher heliographic latitudes is hotter. There is good evidence for the slowing down of the wind as it propagates into the distant heliosphere; the reduction in speed is of the order of 30 km/s and is consistent with the change expected from pickup of interstellar neutrals. Even at 40 AU, velocity structures at roughly the solar rotation period are evident. Beginning in 1987, a 1.3-year period also became apparent; observations from Interplanetary Monitoring Platform-8 (IMP 8) near 1 AU confirm that long-period variation and thus suggest it is of solar origin. The distant spacecraft provide near-ecliptic comparisons with the Ulysses observations and help identify when Ulysses moved into southerly latitudes dominated by polar coronal holes. Local structures in the distant wind provide challenges to our understanding of the structure of the wind and its relationship to the higher-energy particles.

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