Study of distribution functions of interplanetary particles accelerated at co-rotating interaction region at?5A.U.

Abstract

We report the results of a study of the 12-hour average distribution functions of high Z nuclei as measured over a 10-day interval on the Ulysses spacecraft at a helioradius of ∼5.2 A.U. We use the good time and atomic mass resolution of the composition aperture of the HI-SCALE instrument to determine the form of the distribution functions for C, O, Ne, Mg, Si, and Fe over the energy range ∼0.5 – 16 MeV/nucl. We find that the distribution functions of these ions can be organized by characteristic velocities that have values ranging between ∼2000–3500 km/sec over this interval.