NASA Logo

NTRS

NTRS - NASA Technical Reports Server

Back to Results
The Solar Wind in the Outer Heliosphere and HeliosheathThe solar wind environment has a large influence on the transport of cosmic rays. This chapter discusses the observations of the solar wind plasma and magnetic field in the outer heliosphere and the heliosheath. In the supersonic solar wind, interaction regions with large magnetic fields form barriers to cosmic ray transport. This effect, the "CR-B" relationship, has been quantified and is shown to be valid everywhere inside the termination shock (TS). In the heliosheath, this relationship breaks down, perhaps because of a change in the nature of the turbulence. Turbulence is compressive in the heliosheath, whereas it was non-compressive in the solar wind. The plasma pressure in the outer heliosphere is dominated by the pickup ions which gain most of the flow energy at the TS. The heliosheath plasma and magnetic field are highly variable on scales as small as ten minutes. The plasma flow turns away from the nose roughly as predicted, but the radial speeds at Voyager 1 are much less than those at Voyager 2, which is not understood. Despite predictions to the contrary, magnetic reconnection is not an important process in the inner heliosheath with only one observed occurrence to date.
Document ID
20120010150
Acquisition Source
Goddard Space Flight Center
Document Type
Reprint (Version printed in journal)
Authors
Richardson, J. D.
(Massachusetts Inst. of Tech. Cambridge, MA, United States)
Burlaga, L. F.
(NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD, United States)
Date Acquired
August 25, 2013
Publication Date
September 24, 2011
Publication Information
Publication: Space Science Reviews
Subject Category
Astrophysics
Report/Patent Number
GSFC.JA/00183.2012
Funding Number(s)
CONTRACT_GRANT: NASA JPL 959203
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Other

Available Downloads

There are no available downloads for this record.
No Preview Available