The Ulysses mission is providing the first opportunity to observe variations in solar wind plasma parameters at heliographic latitudes far removed from the ecliptic plane. We present an overview of the solar wind speed and the variability in helium abundance, [He] data on [He] in six high latitude coronal mass ejections (CMEs), and a superposed epoch analysis of [He] variations at the seven heliospheric current sheet (HCS) crossings made during the rapid-latitude-scan portion of the mission. The differences in the variability of the solar wind speed and [He] in high latitude and equatorial regions are quite striking. Solar wind speed …
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The Ulysses mission is providing the first opportunity to observe variations in solar wind plasma parameters at heliographic latitudes far removed from the ecliptic plane. We present an overview of the solar wind speed and the variability in helium abundance, [He] data on [He] in six high latitude coronal mass ejections (CMEs), and a superposed epoch analysis of [He] variations at the seven heliospheric current sheet (HCS) crossings made during the rapid-latitude-scan portion of the mission. The differences in the variability of the solar wind speed and [He] in high latitude and equatorial regions are quite striking. Solar wind speed is generally low but highly variable near the solar equator, while at higher latitudes the average speed is quite high with little variability. [He] can vary over nearly two decades at low solar latitudes, while at high latitudes it varies only slightly. In contrast to the high [He] that is commonly associated with CMEs observed in the ecliptic, none of the six high-speed CMEs encountered at high southern heliographic latitudes showed any significant variation in helium content. A superposed epoch analysis of the [He] during all seven HCS crossings made as Ulysses passed from the southern to northern solar hemisphere shows the expected [He] minimum near the crossing and a broad region of low [He] around the crossing time. We discuss how our solar wind [He] observations may provide an accurate measure of the helium composition for the entire convective zone of the Sun.
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Barraclough, Bruce L.; Gosling, John T.; Phillips, John L.; McComas, David J.; Feldman, William C. & Goldstein, Bruce E.He abundance variations in the solar wind: Observations from Ulysses,
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September 1, 1995;
New Mexico.
(https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc623385/:
accessed July 16, 2024),
University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu;
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