Dissemin is shutting down on January 1st, 2025

Published in

American Astronomical Society, Astrophysical Journal, 2(751), p. 80, 2012

DOI: 10.1088/0004-637x/751/2/80

Links

Tools

Export citation

Search in Google Scholar

Near the boundary of the heliosphere: A flow transition region

Journal article published in 2012 by M. Opher, J. F. Drake, M. Velli, R. B. Decker, G. Toth ORCID
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.

Full text: Download

Red circle
Preprint: archiving forbidden
Red circle
Postprint: archiving forbidden
Green circle
Published version: archiving allowed
Data provided by SHERPA/RoMEO

Abstract

Since April of 2010, Voyager 1 has been immersed in a region of near zero radial flows, where the solar wind seems to have stopped. The existence of this region contradicts current models that predict that the radial flows will go to zero only at the heliopause. These models, however, do not include the sector region (or include it in a kinematic fashion), where the solar magnetic field periodically reverses polarity. Here we show that the presence of the sector region in the heliosheath, where reconnection occurs, fundamentally alters the flows, giving rise to a Flow Transition Region (FTR), where the flow abruptly turns and the radial velocity becomes near zero or negative. We estimate, based on a simulation, that at the Voyager 1 location, the thickness of the FTR is around 7-11 AU.