Radial and meridional trends in solar wind thermal electron temperature and anisotropy: Ulysses

Ulysses plasma measurement from 1.15 to 5.31 AU and from S6.4° to S48.3° solar latitude are used to assess the trends in the solar wind thermal electron temperature and anisotropy. Improved spacecraft potential corrections and data products have been incorporated. The radial temperature gradient is steeper than in previous determinations, but flatter than adiabatic. When normalized to 1 AU, temperature decrease with increasing latitude. Little change in the average thermal anisotropy has been seen during the mission.     

Solar wind corotating stream interaction regions out of the ecliptic plane: Ulysses

Ulysses plasma observations reveal that the forward shocks that commonly bound the leading edges of corotating interaction regions (CIRs) beyond 2 AU from the Sun at low heliographic latitudes nearly disappeared at a latitude of S26°. On the other hand, the reverse shocks that commonly bound the trailing edges of the CIRs were observed regularly up to S41.5°, but became weaker with increasing latitude. Only three CIR shocks have been observed poleward of S41.5°; all of these were weak reverse shocks. The above effects are a result of the forward waves propagating to lower heliographic latitudes and the reverse waves to higher latitudes with increasing heliocentric distance. These observational results are in excellent agreement with the predictions of a global model of solar wind flows that originate in a simple tilted-dipole geometry back at the Sun.     

Solar Wind Electron Proton Alpha Monitor (SWEPAM) for the Advanced Composition Explorer

The Solar Wind Electron Proton Alpha Monitor (SWEPAM) experiment provides the bulk solar wind observations for the Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE). These observations provide the context for elemental and isotopic composition measurements made on ACE as well as allowing the direct examination of numerous solar wind phenomena such as coronal mass ejections, interplanetary shocks, and solar wind fine structure, with advanced, 3-D plasma instrumentation. They also provide an ideal data set for both heliospheric and magnetospheric multi-spacecraft studies where they can be used in conjunction with other, simultaneous observations from spacecraft such as Ulysses. The SWEPAM observations are made simultaneously with independent electron and ion instruments. In order to save costs for the ACE project, we recycled the flight spares from the joint NASA/ESA Ulysses mission. Both instruments have undergone selective refurbishment as well as modernization and modifications required to meet the ACE mission and spacecraft accommodation requirements. Both incorporate electrostatic analyzers whose fan-shaped fields of view sweep out all pertinent look directions as the spacecraft spins. Enhancements in the SWEPAM instruments from their original forms as Ulysses spare instruments include (1) a factor of 16 increase in the accumulation interval (and hence sensitivity) for high energy, halo electrons; (2) halving of the effective ion-detecting CEM spacing from ∼5° on Ulysses to ∼2.5° for ACE; and (3) the inclusion of a 20° conical swath of enhanced sensitivity coverage in order to measure suprathermal ions outside of the solar wind beam. New control electronics and programming provide for 64-s resolution of the full electron and ion distribution functions and cull out a subset of these observations for continuous real-time telemetry for space weather purposes. This revised version was published online in June 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Ulysses observations of latitude gradients in the heliospheric magnetic field: Radial component and variances

The radial component of the magnetic field at Ulysses, over latitudes from –10° to –45° and distances from 5.3 to 3.8 AU, compares very well with corresponding measurements being made by IMP-8 in the ecliptic at 1AU. There is little, if any, evidence of a latitude gradient. Variances in the field, normalized to the square of the field magnitude, show little change with latitude in variations in the magnitude but a large increase in the transverse field variations. The latter are shown to be caused by the presence of large amplitude, long period Alfvénic fluctuations. This identification is based on the close relation between the magnetic field and velocity perturbations including the effect of anisotropy in the solar wind pressure. The waves are propagating outward from the Sun, as in the ecliptic, but variance analysis indicates that the direction of propagation is radial rather than field-aligned. A significant long-period component of 10 hours is present.     

Ulysses out-of-ecliptic observations of “27-day” variations in high energy cosmic ray intensity

We report the discovery that for latitudes above 40°S, the observed recurring modulation of cosmic rays and anomalous nuclei occurs without the detection byUlysses of the solar wind velocity and magnetic field recurring enhancements that have, heretofore at lower latitudes, defined corotating interaction regions—i.e., the mechanism producing the recurring intensity variations >40°S appears to be located beyond the radial range ofUlysses.     

Interplanetary shock waves: Ulysses observations in and out of the ecliptic plane

Between its launch in October 1990 and the end of 1993, approximately 160 fast collisionless shock waves were observed in the solar wind by the Ulysses space probe. During the in-ecliptic part of the mission, to February 1992, the observed shock waves were first caused mainly by solar transient events following the solar maximum and the reorganisation of the large scale coronal fields. With the decay in solar activity, relatively stable Corotating Interaction Regions (CIRs) were observed betwen 3 and 5.4 AU, each associated with at least one forwardreverse shock pair. During the out-of-ecliptic phase of the orbit, from February 1992 onwards, CIRs and shock pairs associated with them continued to dominate the observations. From July 1992, Ulysses encountered the fast solar wind flow from the newly developed southern polar coronal hole, and from May 1993 remained in the unipolar magnetic region associated with this coronal hole. At latitudes beyond 30°, CIRs were associated almost exclusively with reverse shocks only. A comprehensive list of shock waves identified in the magnetic field and solar wind plasma data from Ulysses is given in Table 1. The principal characteristics were determined mainly from the magnetic field data. General considerations concerning the determination of shock characteristics are outlined in the Introduction.     

Ulysses solar wind observations to 56° south

In the 25 months since Jupiter flyby, the Ulysses spacecraft has climbed southward to a heliolatitude of 56°. This transit has been marked by an evolution from slow, dense coronal streamer belt solar wind through two regions where the rotation of the Sun carried Ulysses back and forth between streamer belt and polar coronal hole flows, and finally into a region of essentially continuous fast, low density solar wind from the southern polar coronal hole. Throughout these large changes, the momentum flux normalized to 1 AU displays very little systematic variation. In addition, the bulk properties of the polar coronal hole solar wind are quite similar to those observed in high speed streams in the ecliptic plane at 1 AU. Coronal mass ejections and forward and reverse shocks associated with corotating interaction regions have also been observed at higher heliolatitudes, however they are seen less frequently with increasing southern heliolatitude. Ulysses has thus far collected data from 20° of nearly contiguous solar wind flows from the polar coronal hole. We examine these data for characteristic variations with heliolatitude and find that the bulk properties in general show very little systematic variation across the southern polar coronal hole so far.     

Magnetic holes in the solar wind and their relation to mirror-mode structures

Data obtained by the Ulysses magnetometer and solar wind analyzer have been combined to study the properties of magnetic holes in the solar wind between 1 and 5.4 AU and to 23° south latitude. Although the plasma surrounding the holes was generally stable against the mirror instability, there are indications that the holes may have been remnants of mirror mode structures created upstream of the points of observation. Those indications include: (1) For the few holes for which proton or alpha-particle pressure could be measured inside the hole, the ion thermal pressure was always greater than in the plasma adjacent to the holes. (2) The plasma surrounding many of the holes was marginally stable for the mirror mode, while the plasma environment of all the holes was significantly closer to mirror instability than was the average solar wind. (3) The plasma containing trains of closely spaced holes was closer to mirror instability than was the plasma containing isolated holes. (4) The near-hole plasma had much higher ion (ratio of thermal to magnetic pressure) than did the average solar wind.     

Coronal mass ejections at high heliographic latitudes: Ulysses

Nine coronal mass ejections (CMEs) have been detected in the solar wind by the Ulysses plasma experiment between 31° and 61° South. One of these events, which was also a magnetic cloud, was directly associated with an event observed by the soft X-ray telescope on Yohkoh in which large magnetic loops formed in the solar corona directly beneath Ulysses. This association suggests that the flux rope topology of the magnetic cloud resulted from reconnection between the legs of neighboring magnetic loops within the rising CME. The average CME speed (740 km s^–1) at these latitudes was comparable to that of the normal solar wind there and is much greater than average CME speeds observed either in the solar wind in the ecliptic plane or in the corona close to the Sun. We suggest that the same basic acceleration process applies to both slow CMEs and the normal solar wind at any latitude.     

The three-dimensional extent of a high speed solar wind stream

A primary goal of the Ulysses mission is to study the 3-dimensional structures making up the interplanetary medium, and example of which is the high speed solar wind stream observedin situ by Ulysses beginning in July 1992. In order to study the longitudinal extent of this stream as a function of Ulysses' increasing heliographic latitude, a second point of reference is required to separate spatial and temporal variations. Such a reference point is provided at Jupiter by a class of Jovian radio bursts, whose occurrence rate varies in a predictable way with solar wind speed. Using thein situ and remote observations from Ulysses, the extent of the high speed stream at 5 AU is mapped and compared to the associated coronal hole boundary on the Sun.