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The Composition of the Solar Wind in Polar Coronal Holes

Gloeckler, George; Geiss, Johannes

The solar wind charge state and elemental compositions have been measured with the Solar Wind Ion Composition Spectrometers (SWICS) on Ulysses and ACE for a combined period of about 25 years. This most extensive data set includes all varieties of solar wind flows and extends over more than one solar cycle. With SWICS the abundances of all charge s…

Interstellar Dust in the Solar System

Altobelli, Nicolas; Krüger, Harald; Grün, Eberhard +1 more

The Ulysses spacecraft has been orbiting the Sun on a highly inclined ellipse almost perpendicular to the ecliptic plane (inclination 79°, perihelion distance 1.3 AU, aphelion distance 5.4 AU) since it encountered Jupiter in 1992. The in situ dust detector on board continuously measured interstellar dust grains with masses up to 10^-13 k…

Filtration of Interstellar Atoms through the Heliospheric Interface

Izmodenov, V. V.

Interstellar atoms penetrate deep into the heliosphere after passing through the heliospheric interface—the region of the interaction of the solar wind with the interstellar medium. The heliospheric interface serves as a filter for the interstellar atoms of hydrogen and oxygen, and, to a lesser extent, nitrogen, due to their coupling with interste…

Pickup Ions and Cosmic Rays from Dust in the Heliosphere

Schwadron, N. A.; Gloeckler, G.

The combination of recent observational and theoretical work has completed the catalog of the sources of heliospheric Pickup Ions (PUIs). These PUIs are the seed population for Anomalous Cosmic Rays (ACRs), which are accelerated to high energies at or beyond the Termination Shock (TS). For elements with high First Ionization Potentials (high-FIP a…