At Voyager 1 Starting on about August 25, 2012 at a Distance of 121.7 AU From the Sun, a Sudden Disappearance of Anomalous Cosmic Rays and an Unusually Large Sudden Increase of Galactic Cosmic Ray H and He Nuclei and Electron Occurred

Abstract

At the Voyager 1 spacecraft in the outer heliosphere, after a series of complex intensity changes starting at about May 8th, the intensities of both anomalous cosmic rays (ACR) and galactic cosmic rays (GCR) changed suddenly and decisively on August 25th (121.7 AU from the Sun). The ACR started the intensity decrease with an initial e-folding rate of intensity decrease of ~1 day. Within a matter of a few days, the intensity of 1.9-2.7 MeV protons and helium nuclei had decreased to less than 0.1 of their previous value and after a few weeks, corresponding to the outward movement of V1 by ~0.1 AU, these intensities had decreased by factors of at least 300-500 and are now lower than most estimates of the GCR spectrum for these lower energies and also at higher energies. The decrease was accompanied by large rigidity dependent anisotropies in addition to the extraordinary rapidity of the intensity changes. Also on August 25th the GCR protons, helium and heavier nuclei as well as electrons increased suddenly with the intensities of electrons reaching levels ~30-50% higher than observed just one day earlier. This increase for GCR occurred over ~1 day for the lowest rigidity electrons, and several days for the higher rigidity nuclei of rigidity ~0.5-1.0 GV. After reaching these higher levels the intensities of the GCR of all energies from 2 to 400 MeV have remained essentially constant with intensity levels and spectra that may represent the local GCR. These intensity changes will be presented in more detail in this, and future articles, as this story unfolds.

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