Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• BURLAGA, L F
• Ness, N F

Titel

VOYAGER 1 OBSERVATIONS OF THE INTERSTELLAR MAGNETIC FIELD AND THE TRANSITION FROM THE HELIOSHEATH

Ist Teil von

• The Astrophysical journal, 2014-04, Vol.784 (2), p.1-14

Ort / Verlag

United States

Erscheinungsjahr

2014

Link zum Volltext

Quelle

EZB Electronic Journals Library

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Voyager 1 (V1) has been observing interstellar magnetic fields for more than one year beginning approximately 2012/209, when V1 crossed a current sheet, a "CS0" having the structure of a tangential discontinuity. The inclination of this current sheet is consistent with an interstellar magnetic field B draped on a blunt heliopause. Two other current sheets (sector boundaries) were observed at approximately 2012/167 and approximately 2011 /276 with high inclinations (99[degrees] + or - 10[degrees] and 89[degrees] + or - 10[degrees], respectively). From 2013.0 to approximately 2013.6, the difference between the azimuthal angle [lambda] of B from the Parker spiral angle at the latitude 34[degrees].6 of V1was [lambda] - [lambda]P = 22[degrees] + or - 3[degrees] and the corresponding difference of the elevation angle [delta] was [delta] - [delta] sub(P) = 23[degrees] + or - 8[degrees]. During 2012, the deviation from the Parker spiral angle was somewhat smaller. The interstellar magnetic field has a "west to east polarity," opposite to the direction of planetary motions. The magnitude of B varied smoothly in the range 0.38-0.59 nT with an average B = 0.486 + or - 0.045 after 2012/237.7. The transition from heliosheath to interstellar magnetic fields is related to a "two-step" increase in the cosmic ray intensity observed by V1 from approximately 2012.30 to approximately 2012.65. The first step increase began near the end of an unusual "away-polarity" sector, and it reached a plateau when V1 moved into a "toward-polarity" sector that ended at CS0. The second step increase began slowly after V1 crossed CS0, and it ended abruptly at 2012/237.728.