The Sun moves through the local interstellar medium, continuously emitting ionized, supersonic solar wind plasma and carving out a cavity in interstellar space called the heliosphere. The recently launched Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) spacecraft has completed its first all-sky maps of the interstellar interaction at the edge of the heliosphere by imaging energetic neutral atoms (ENAs) emanating from this region. We found a bright ribbon of ENA emission, unpredicted by prior models or theories, that may be ordered by the local interstellar magnetic field interacting with the heliosphere. This ribbon is superposed on globally distributed flux variations ordered by both the solar wind structure and the direction of motion through the interstellar medium. Our results indicate that the external galactic environment strongly imprints the heliosphere.

[1] Observed electron distribution functions of the solar wind permanently exhibit three different components: a thermal core and a suprathermal halo, which are always present at all pitch angles, and a sharply magnetic field aligned ''strahl'' which is usually antisunward moving. Whereas Coulomb collisions can explain the relative isotropy of the core population, the origin of the halo population, and more specifically the origin of its sunward directed part, remains unknown. In this study we present the radial evolution of the electron velocity distribution functions in the fast solar wind between 0.3 and 1.5 AU. For this purpose we combine data measured separately by the Helios, Wind, and Ulysses spacecraft. We compute average distributions over distance and normalize them to 1 AU to remove the effects of the solar wind expansion. Then we model separately the core, halo, and strahl components to compute their relative number density or fraction of the total electron density. We observe that, while the core fractional density remains roughly constant with radial distance, the halo and strahl fractional densities vary in an opposite way. The relative number of halo electrons is increasing, while the relative number of strahl electrons is decreasing with distance. Therefore we provide, for the first time, strong evidences for a scenario that is commonly assumed: the heliospheric electron halo population consists partly of electrons that have been scattered out of the strahl.

[1] Empirically derived kappa distributions are becoming increasingly widespread in space physics as the power law nature of various suprathermal tails is melded with more classical quasi-Maxwellian cores. Two different mathematical definitions of kappa distributions are commonly used and various authors characterize the power law nature of suprathermal tails in different ways. In this study we examine how kappa distributions arise naturally from Tsallis statistical mechanics, which provides a solid theoretical basis for describing and analyzing complex systems out of equilibrium. This analysis exposes the possible values of kappa, which are strictly limited to certain ranges. We also develop the concept of temperature out of equilibrium, which differs significantly from the classical equilibrium temperature. This analysis clarifies which of the kappa distributions has primacy and, using this distribution, the kinetic and physical temperatures become one, both in and out of equilibrium. Finally, we extract the general relation between both types of kappa distributions and the spectral indices commonly used to parameterize space plasmas. With this relation, it is straightforward to compare both spectral indices from various space physics observations, models, and theoretical studies that use kappa distributions on a consistent footing that minimizes the chances for misinterpretation and error. Now that the connection is complete between empirically derived kappa distributions and Tsallis statistical mechanics, the full strength and capability of Tsallis statistical tools are available to the space physics community for analyzing and understanding the kappa-like properties of the various particle and energy distributions observed in space.

Coronal mass ejection events (CMEs) are important occasional sources of plasma and magnetic field in the solar wind at 1 AU, accounting for approximately 10% of all solar wind measurements in the ecliptic plane during the last solar activity maximum. Previous work indicates that virtually all transient shock wave disturbances in the solar wind are driven by fast CMEs. Using a recently appreciated capability for distinguishing CMEs in solar wind data in the form of counterstreaming solar wind electron events, this paper explores the overall effectiveness of shock wave disturbances and CMEs in general in stimulating geomagnetic activity. The study is confined to the interval from mid‐August 1978 through mid‐October 1982, spanning the last solar activity maximum, when ISEE 3 was in orbit about the L1 Lagrange point 220 Re upstream from Earth. We find that all but one of the 37 largest geomagnetic storms in that era were associated with Earth passage of CMEs and/or shock disturbances, with the large majority of these storms (27 out of 37) being associated with interplanetary events where Earth encountered both a shock and the CME driving the shock (shock/CME events). Although CMEs and/or shock disturbances were increasingly the cause of geomagnetic activity as the level of geomagnetic activity increased, many smaller geomagnetic disturbances were unrelated to these events. Further, approximately half of all CMEs and half of all shock disturbances encountered by Earth did not produce any substantial geomagnetic activity as measured by the planetary geomagnetic index Kp. The geomagnetic effectiveness of Earth directed CMEs and shock wave disturbances was directly related to the flow speed, the magnetic field magnitude, and the strength of the southward (GSM) field component associated with the events. The initial speed of a CME close to the Sun appears to be the most crucial factor in determining if an earthward directed event will be effective in exciting a large geomagnetic disturbance.