The interplanetary magnetic field structure

Abstract

THE interplanetary magnetic field is the extension, by the solar wind, of the solar magnetic field1. The detailed connection between the solar and interplanetary fields depends, however, on the precise manner in which the wind originates in the solar atmosphere and involves a number of complicated dynamical questions which are not yet fully understood2. Thus knowledge of the three-dimensional structure of the interplanetary magnetic field is important to our understanding of the solar atmosphere and solar wind flow. Up to now, direct measurements have been confined to the close vicinity of the solar equatorial plane; as a result our ideas about the overall structure of the interplanetary field are speculative. Here we suggest that the cosmic-ray flux provides some indirect information about the morphology of the interplanetary field.