HR: 08:30h
AN: SH11A-03    [Abstracts]
TI: The Solar Wind in the Foreshock Upstream of the Termination Shock
AU: * Richardson, J D
EM: jdr@space.mit.edu
AF: M.I.T., M.I.T. 37-655, Cambridge, MA 02139, United States
AB: Voyager 2 is observing streaming energetic particles which indicate that it is in the foreshock region which extends several AU in front of the termination shock. The density obsserved by V2 in July and August 2007 has been very low and the speed has decreased, so the dynamic pressure is low and the termination shock should be moving inward. We show recent solar wind data and compare with other data from Voyager. The speeds on Voyager have fallen below 300 km/s, the lowest speeds since the beginning of the mission, suggesting a rapid slowdown of the solar wind is occurring before the shock. This decrease is more rapid than predicted from the interaction with interstellar neutrals, and we discuss the implications of these data.
DE: 2124 Heliopause and solar wind termination
DE: 2126 Heliosphere/interstellar medium interactions
DE: 2144 Interstellar gas
DE: 2164 Solar wind plasma
SC: SPA-Solar and Heliospheric Physics [SH]
MN: 2007 Fall Meeting