Corotating Interaction Regions: Proceedings of an ISSI Workshop 6–13 June 1998, Bern, Switzerland

ISBN 10: 079236080X / ISBN 13: 9780792360803

Published by Springer, 2000

About this Item

Seller Inventory # I-9780792360803

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Corotating Interaction Regions: Proceedings of an ISSI Workshop 6?13 June 1998, Bern, Switzerland
• Publisher: Springer
• Publication Date: 2000
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 079236080X
• ISBN 13: 9780792360803
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

A Corotating Interaction Region (CIR) is the result of the interaction of fast solar wind with slower solar wind ahead. CIRs have a very large three-dimensional ex­ tent and are the dominant large-scale structure in the heliosphere on the declining and minimum phase of the solar activity cycle. Until recently, however, CIRs could only be observed close to the ecliptic plane, and their three-dimensional structure was therefore not obvious to observers and theoreticians alike. Ulysses was the first spacecraft allowing direct exploration of the third dimen­ sion of the heliosphere. Since 1992, when it has entered a polar orbit that takes it 0 up to 80 latitude, the spacecraft's performance has been flawless and the mission has provided excellent data from a superbly matched set of instruments. Perhaps the most exciting observation during Ulysses' first passage towards the south pole of the Sun was a strong and long lasting CIR whose energetic particle effects were observed up to unexpectedly high latitudes. These observations, documented in a number of publications, stimulated considerable new theoretical work.

Synopsis

This volume gives a comprehensive and integrated overview of current knowledge and understanding of corotating interaction regions (CIRs) in the solar wind. It is the result of a workshop at ISSI, where space scientists involved in the Ulysses, Pioneer, Voyager, IMP-8, Wind, and SOHO missions exchanged their data and interpretations with theorists in the fields of solar and heliospheric physics. The book provides a broad synthesis of current understanding of CIRs, which form at the interface between the fast solar wind originating in the northern and southern coronal holes and the slow solar wind that originates near and within coronal streamers surrounding the heliomagnetic equator. CIRs are the dominant structure in the heliosphere near and beyond Earth on the declining phase and near the minimum of the 11-year solar activity cycle.Particles energized at the shocks that bound CIRs at heliospheric distances beyond the orbit of Earth are the dominant energetic particle population observed in the outer heliosphere at these times.

Papers included in this volume cover the subject of CIRs from their dissipation in the outer hemisphere, and include discussions of complexities associated with their evolution with distance from the Sun, their three-dimensional structure, and the myriad effects that CIRs have on energetic particles throughout the heliosphere. The book is intended to provide scientists active in space physics research with an up-to-date status report on current understanding of CIRs and their effects in the heliosphere, and also to serve the advanced graduate student with introductory material on this active field of research.