The Ulysses Legacy
Abstract
The Ulysses mission was the first space mission to reach genuine high latitudes in the heliosphere, and is the only one to do so to this day. Launched in 1990, it has provided nearly two decades of unprecedented and groundbreaking observations. Thus it has added to our picture of the heliosphere not only the third, out-of-ecliptic, dimension, but also the fourth, time, of almost a full magnetic (Hale) cycle of the Sun. Now that Ulysses has ceased to operate and as we are thinking about future out-of-ecliptic missions it is a good time to pause and review the Ulysses legacy. We will present and review the highlights of what Ulysses has been teaching us about the heliosphere: e.g., the two states of the solar wind, there unexpected structure of the polar magnetic field and what it means for access of cosmic rays, how the magnetic field reverses polarity at solar maximum, and even fortuitous encounters with the tails of distant comets. Finally, we will also review the impact of the lack of imaging instrumentation on Ulysses.
- Publication:
-
39th COSPAR Scientific Assembly
- Pub Date:
- July 2012
- Bibcode:
- 2012cosp...39.2102V