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Composition of Anomalous Cosmic Rays and Implications for the Heliosphere

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Book cover The Heliosphere in the Local Interstellar Medium

Part of the book series: Space Science Series of ISSI ((SSSI,volume 1))

Abstract

We use energy spectra of anomalous cosmic rays (ACRs) measured with the Cosmic Ray instrument on the Voyager 1 and 2 spacecraft during the period 1994/157–313 to determine several parameters of interest to heliospheric studies. We estimate that the strength of the solar wind termination shock is 2.42 (-0.08, +0.04). We determine the composition of ACRs by estimating their differential energy spectra at the shock and find the following abundance ratios: H/He = 5.6 (-0.5, +0.6), C/He = 0.00048 ± 0.00011, N/He = 0.011 ± 0.001, O/He = 0.075 ± 0.006, and Ne/He = 0.0050 ± 0.0004. We correlate our observations with those of pickup ions to deduce that the long-term ionization rate of neutral nitrogen at 1 AU is ~ 8.3 x 10-7 s-1 and that the charge-exchange cross section for neutral N and solar wind protons is ~ 1.0 x 10-15 cm2 at 1.1 keV. We estimate that the neutral C/He ratio in the outer heliosphere is 1.8(-0.7, +0.9) x 10-5. We also find that heavy ions are preferentially injected into the acceleration process at the termination shock.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, 91125, USA

    A. C. Cummings

  2. California Institute of Technology, Mail Code 220–47, Pasadena, CA, 91125, USA

    E. C. Stone

Authors
  1. A. C. Cummings
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  2. E. C. Stone
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. International Space Science Institute, Bern, Switzerland

    R. Von Steiger

  2. Service d’Aéronomie du CNRS, Verrières le Buisson, France

    R. Lallement

  3. University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH, USA

    M. A. Lee

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© 1996 Kluwer Academic Publishers

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Cummings, A.C., Stone, E.C. (1996). Composition of Anomalous Cosmic Rays and Implications for the Heliosphere. In: Von Steiger, R., Lallement, R., Lee, M.A. (eds) The Heliosphere in the Local Interstellar Medium. Space Science Series of ISSI, vol 1. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-1782-8_13

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-1782-8_13

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-94-010-7296-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-009-1782-8

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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