Voyager observations of O(+6) and other minor ions in the solar wind

Details Voyager observations of O(+6) and other minor ions in the solar wind Voyager observations of O(+6) and other minor ions in the solar wind

Feb 1994

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1994jgr....99.2553v&link_type=abstract

Journal of Geophysical Research (ISSN 0148-0227), vol. 99, no. A2, p. 2553-2565

Physics

2

Alpha Particles, Oxygen Ions, Plasma Density, Protons, Solar Wind, Mach Number, Plasma Composition, Solar Cycles, Voyager Project, Wind Measurement

Scientific paper

The plasma science (PLS) experiments on the Voyager 1 and 2 spacecraft began making measurements of the solar wind shortly after the two launches in the fall of 1977. In reviewing the data obtained prior to the Jupiter encounters in 1979, we have found that the large dynamic range of the PLS instrument generally allows a clean separation of signatures of minor ions (about 2.5% of the time) during a single instrument scan in energy per charge. The minor ions, most notably O(+6), are well separated from the protons and alpha particles during times when the solar wind Mach number (ratio of streaming speed to thermal speed) is greater than approximately 15. During the Earth to Jupiter cruise we find that the average ratio of alpha particle number density to that of oxygen is 66 +/- 7 (Voyager 1) and 71 +/- 17 (Voyager 2). These values are consistent with the value 75 +/- 20 inferred from the Ion Composition Instrument on ISEE 3 during the period spanning 1978 and 1982. We have inferred an average coronal temperature of (1.7 +/- 0.1) x 106 K based on the ratio of O(+7) to O(+6) number densities. Our observations cover a period of increasing solar activity. During this time we have found that the alpha particle to proton number density ratio is increasing with the solar cycle, the oxygen to proton ratio increases, and the alpha particle to oxygen ratio remains relatively constant in time.

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