Investigation of the suprathermal ion tail with Voyager LECP data
Abstract
Using publicly available data from the Voyager Low Energy Charged Particle (LECP) instruments, we investigate the form of the solar wind ion suprathermal tail in the outer heliosphere. This tail has a commonly observed form in the inner heliosphere, that is, a power law with a particular spectral index. The Voyager spacecraft have taken data beyond 100 AU, far farther than any others. However, during extended periods of time, the data appears to be mostly background. We have developed a technique to estimate the background seen by LECP due to cosmic rays using data from the Voyager cosmic ray instruments and a model of the LECP instruments. In this presentation, we discuss the development of our background removal technique and first results of applying it to studying the suprathermal ion tail in the solar wind.
- Publication:
-
Solar Heliospheric and INterplanetary Environment (SHINE 2013)
- Pub Date:
- June 2013
- Bibcode:
- 2013shin.confE..66R