The Heliosphere through the Solar Activity Cycle

by Balogh, Andre; Lanzerotti, Louis J.; Suess, Steven T.

• ISBN13: 9783540743019
• ISBN10: 3540743014
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2007-12-04
• Publisher: Springer Verlag

Summary

A principal objective of space research has been to increase our understanding of the way the Sun changes through its 11-year sunspot cycle, and how these changes affect the vast space around the Sun - the heliosphere. This book is the first to describe and analyze the data on the three-dimensional heliosphere as the Ulysses spacecraft made its ground-breaking orbital passes of the Sun's north and south poles in 1994-1995 and 2000-2001. The chapters explain the many different aspects of changes in the heliosphere in response to solar activity, and describe the rise in solar activity from the last minimum in 1998 to its maximum in 2000, and its subsequent decline.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. xi
Acknowledgments	p. xv
List of figures	p. xvii
List of abbreviations and acronyms	p. xxiii
The heliosphere: Its origin and exploration	p. 1
Introduction	p. 1
The pre-space age heliosphere	p. 2
The expanding hot solar atmosphere	p. 2
Energetic particles in the heliosphere	p. 5
The heliosphere and its boundaries	p. 7
The size of the heliosphere	p. 8
The termination shock and beyond: Voyager 1 results	p. 11
Heliospheric structure and dynamics over the solar cycle	p. 12
The solar wind through the solar activity cycle	p. 12
Close to solar-minimum activity: corotating interaction regions	p. 14
Around solar-maximum activity: coronal mass ejections	p. 14
Energetic solar particles	p. 15
Large-scale structures and the modulation of cosmic rays	p. 16
The exploration of the heliosphere	p. 16
Inner heliosphere	p. 16
Earth-orbiting missions	p. 17
L1 spacecraft	p. 17
Outer heliosphere	p. 18
Future heliosphere missions	p. 18
Summary	p. 19
References	p. 19
Solar cycle 23	p. 21
Introduction	p. 21
Solar activity cycles	p. 22
Cycle 23	p. 27
The extension of cycle 23 into the interplanetary medium	p. 31
Summary	p. 37
Acknowledgments	p. 37
References	p. 38
The solar wind throughout the solar cycle	p. 41
Introduction: the pre-Ulysses picture	p. 41
Morphology	p. 44
Distribution functions	p. 49
H and He distribution functions	p. 49
Heavy ion distribution functions	p. 51
Composition	p. 53
Charge-state composition	p. 54
Elemental composition	p. 58
Correlation between composition and kinetic parameters	p. 61
Transients	p. 62
Corotating interaction regions	p. 62
Coronal mass ejections	p. 64
Other transients	p. 68
The Ulysses picture: the solar wind in four dimensions	p. 70
Acknowledgments	p. 71
References	p. 71
The global heliospheric magnetic field	p. 79
Introduction	p. 79
The heliospheric magnetic field: a global perspective	p. 80
The Parker field model	p. 80
B[subscript r] and open flux	p. 84
B[subscript T] and the Parker spiral angle	p. 87
The north-south component, B[subscript N]	p. 93
The heliospheric magnetic field at solar minimum	p. 95
Dipole tilt, sector structure, and heliospheric current sheet	p. 95
Sector structure and source surface models	p. 97
Heliospheric current sheet and plasma sheet: properties	p. 98
The HMF and testing of source surface models	p. 101
The HMF and heliospheric structure	p. 103
Solar and solar wind structure	p. 103
Evolution and interaction of fast and slow wind	p. 105
CIRs, shocks, and dipole tilt	p. 108
CIRs, energetic particles, and their access to high latitudes	p. 111
Corotating rarefaction regions and the spiral angle	p. 116
Magnetic field strength and flux deficit	p. 118
North-south asymmetry of the solar dipole and its solar cycle variation	p. 120
Temporal variations-coronal mass ejections	p. 123
HMF at solar maximum and its solar cycle variation	p. 125
Introduction to solar maximum and the Hale cycle	p. 125
Solar magnetic field at solar maximum	p. 125
Magnetic dipole and polarity reversal	p. 128
Inclination of the HCS and solar dipole	p. 129
The radial component at solar maximum	p. 134
Solar cycle variation of open flux	p. 136
Solar cycle variations in field magnitude	p. 138
Summary-solar cycle variations	p. 139
Acknowledgments	p. 144
References	p. 144
Heliospheric energetic particle variations	p. 151
Energetic particle populations in the inner heliosphere	p. 151
Solar minimum orbit (1992-1998)	p. 152
Summary of the Ulysses solar-minimum observations	p. 154
Energetic particle origin, transport, and acceleration processes in the solar-minimum inner heliosphere	p. 156
Solar maximum orbit (1998-2004)	p. 159
Composition analyses (1990-2005)	p. 165
Multi-spacecraft observations of SEP events: Ulysses and near-Earth observations	p. 168
The Bastille flare/CME event (2000 July 14)	p. 172
The 2001 September 24 event (day 267 of year)	p. 175
Heliospheric energetic particle reservoirs	p. 179
Influence of interplanetary structures on SEP propagation	p. 183
Summary	p. 186
Acknowledgments	p. 187
References	p. 188
Galactic and anomalous cosmic rays through the solar cycle: New insights from Ulysses	p. 195
Introduction	p. 195
Particle populations in the heliosphere	p. 195
Cosmic ray modulation	p. 196
Selected cosmic ray observations	p. 199
Observations close to Earth	p. 200
The transport equation	p. 203
The diffusion tensor	p. 207
Solar wind, magnetic field, and the current sheet	p. 208
Size and geometry of the heliosphere	p. 210
Termination shock and anomalous cosmic rays	p. 211
Local interstellar spectra	p. 212
Cosmic ray modulation models	p. 213
Modeling the 11-year and 22-year cycles	p. 214
The compound modeling approach to long-term modulation	p. 215
Cosmic ray distribution at solar minima	p. 216
Ulysses observations at solar minimum	p. 218
The transition from solar minimum to solar maximum	p. 224
Galactic cosmic rays during the 1990-2000 A>0 solar magnetic cycle	p. 225
MeV electrons	p. 232
Summary	p. 235
Solar minimum	p. 235
Solar maximum	p. 237
Insights on particle propagation in a turbulent astrophysical plasma	p. 238
Cosmic ray modulation surprises from Ulysses	p. 238
Acknowledgments	p. 239
References	p. 239
Overview: The heliosphere then and now	p. 251
Introduction	p. 251
The known heliosphere in 1992	p. 253
The solar wind and the heliospheric magnetic field	p. 254
Solar wind composition and ionization state	p. 257
Energetic particles and cosmic rays	p. 258
Interstellar and interplanetary neutral gas	p. 260
Interstellar and interplanetary dust	p. 260
The known heliosphere after a solar activity cycle with Ulysses	p. 261
The global view	p. 261
Coronal and heliospheric magnetic fields	p. 264
Composition and ionization state	p. 267
Coronal mass ejections	p. 268
Energetic particles	p. 268
Cosmic rays	p. 272
The heliosphere-interstellar medium interface	p. 274
Summary	p. 275
Acknowledgments	p. 277
References	p. 277
Index	p. 281
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