Enhancements of energetic particles near the heliospheric termination shock
Abstract
The spacecraft Voyager 1 is at a distance greater than 85 au from the Sun, in the vicinity of the termination shock that marks the abrupt slowing of the supersonic solar wind and the beginning of the extended and unexplored distant heliosphere. This shock is expected to accelerate 'anomalous cosmic rays', as well as to re-accelerate Galactic cosmic rays and low-energy particles from the inner Solar System. Here we report a significant increase in the numbers of energetic ions and electrons that persisted for seven months beginning in mid-2002. This increase differs from any previously observed in that there was a simultaneous increase in Galactic cosmic ray ions and electrons, anomalous cosmic rays and low-energy ions. The low-intensity level and spectral energy distribution of the anomalous cosmic rays, however, indicates that Voyager 1 still has not reached the termination shock. Rather, the observed increase is an expected precursor event. We argue that the radial anisotropy of the cosmic rays is expected to be small in the foreshock region, as is observed.
Additional Information
© 2003 Macmillan Publishers Limited. Received 28 May; accepted 14 September 2003. We thank J. D. Richardson and colleagues for making the Voyager 2 solar wind data available at . We also thank J. R. Jokipii, F. C. Jones, H. Moraal, V. Ptuskin and R. Caballero-Lopez for discussions on shock acceleration processes and particle flow in the vicinity of the acceleration region.Additional details
- Eprint ID
- 48887
- DOI
- 10.1038/nature02066
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20140826-084638532
- Created
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2014-08-26Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
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2021-11-10Created from EPrint's last_modified field
- Caltech groups
- Space Radiation Laboratory