HR: 08:00h
AN: SH11A-01 INVITED    [Abstracts]
TI: Voyager 2 in the Vicinity of the Termination Shock with Voyager 1 Well Beyond
AU: * Stone, E C
EM: ecs@srl.caltech.edu
AF: California Institute of Technology, 220-47 Downs Laboratory, Pasadena, CA 91125,
AB: Voyager 2 began observing intense inward streaming of MeV ions from the termination shock in 2005 and has recently observed plasma oscillations excited by electron beams from the shock. Such beams occur on field lines that are tangential to planetary bow shocks, and Gurnett and Kurth proposed a similar topology for oscillations observed by Voyager 1 upstream of the termination shock. This suggests that Voyager 2 is now directly connected along the magnetic field to the shock, consistent with increasing intensities of sub-MeV ions. MHD models by Opher et al. and Pogorelov et al. indicate that direct connection along the spiral magnetic field to the non-spherical shock occurs when Voyager 2 is within ~3 AU from the shock. This suggests that if the shock moves steadily inward at >30 km/s, Voyager 2 may enter the heliosheath this year at a radial distance of <85 AU. The Voyager 2 data at the shock combined with Voyager 1 data at 105 AU in the heliosheath should help address questions such as the plasma flow immediately upstream of the shock and in the heliosheath, the source of anomalous cosmic rays and their relationship to the lower energy ions from the shock, the gradients of cosmic rays in the heliosheath, the effects of transients at the shock and beyond, and the north-south asymmetries in the shock and heliosheath
DE: 2104 Cosmic rays
DE: 2114 Energetic particles (7514)
DE: 2124 Heliopause and solar wind termination
DE: 2126 Heliosphere/interstellar medium interactions
DE: 2134 Interplanetary magnetic fields
SC: SPA-Solar and Heliospheric Physics [SH]
MN: 2007 Fall Meeting