HR: 08:30h
AN: SH41A-01    [Abstracts]
TI: Thickness of Heliospheric Current and Plasma Sheets: Dependence on Distance
AU: * Zhou, X
EM: Xiaoyan.Zhou@jpl.nasa.gov
AF: Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, CA 91109 United States
AU: Smith, E J
EM: Edward.J.Smith@jpl.nasa.gov
AF: Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, CA 91109 United States
AU: Winterhalter, D
EM: Daniel.Winterhalter@jpl.nasa.gov
AF: Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, CA 91109 United States
AU: McComas, D J
EM: DMcComas@swri.edu
AF: Southwest Research Institute, PO Drawer 28510, San Antonio, TX 78228 United States
AU: Skoug, R M
EM: rskoug@lanl.gov
AF: Los Alamos National Laboratory, Bikini Atoll Rd., SM 30, Los Alamos, NM 87545 United States
AU: Goldstein, B E
EM: Bruce.Goldstein@jpl.nasa.gov
AF: Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, CA 91109 United States
AU: Smith, C W
EM: charles.smith@unh.edu
AF: Univ. of New Hampshire, 39 College Road, Durham, NH 03824 United States
AB: Heliospheric current sheets (HCS) are well defined structures that separate the interplanetary magnetic fields with inverse polarities. Surrounded by heliospheric plasma sheets (HPS), the current sheets stretch throughout the heliosphere. Interesting questions that still remain unanswered include how the thickness of these structures will change along the distance? And what determines the thickness of these structures? To answer these fundamental questions, we have carried out a study of the HCS and HPS using recent Ulysses data near 5 AU. When the results were compared with earlier studies at 1 AU using ISEE-3 data, they were surprising and unexplained. Although the plasma sheet grew thicker, the embedded current sheet grew thinner! Using data under the same (or very similar) circumstances, we have extended the analysis in two ways. First, the same current-plasma sheets studied at 5 AU have been identified at 1 AU using ACE data. Second, data obtained while Ulysses was en-route to Jupiter near 3 AU have been analyzed. This three-point investigation reveals the thickness variation along the distance and enables the examination of the controller of this variation.
DE: 2102 Corotating streams
DE: 2114 Energetic particles, heliospheric (7514)
DE: 2134 Interplanetary magnetic fields
DE: 2164 Solar wind plasma
SC: SPA-Solar and Heliospheric Physics [SH]
MN: 2005 Joint Assembly