Meeting abstract

EGS, 23rd General Assembly, Nice, 20-24 April 1998

Abstract:
After a highly successful exploration of the polar regions of the heliosphere in 1994 and 1995 during solar minimum activity, the ESA/NASA Ulysses spacecraft is now once again at near-ecliptic latitudes at a distance from the Sun of about 5AU. The equator was crossed in December 1997 and aphelion is in April 1998. In this paper we report on the recent results from the magnetic field investigation on Ulysses. The properties of the heliospheric magnetic field during the second slow latitude scan from the north pole down to the equator are described, in particular the radial component, underlying direction and variances of the field. At lower latitudes Ulysses is again observing heliospheric current sheet crossings and magnetic field compressions associated with corotating and transient solar wind flows. The pattern of current sheet crossings is discussed and related to the photospheric and coronal magnetic field patterns at the Sun. With the recent rise in solar activity, the number of transient signatures in the field data is increasing. We will report on any identifications of specific events with their solar origin and on whether we have been successful at observing any transient events at Ulysses also seen by near Earth spacecraft, for which the best opportunity will be the first months of 1998.