Voyager 1 crossed the termination shock of the supersonic flow of the solar wind on 16 December 2004 at a distance of 94.01 astronomical units from the Sun, becoming the first spacecraft to begin exploring the heliosheath, the outermost layer of the heliosphere. The shock is a steady source of low-energy protons with an energy spectrum approximately E(-1.41 +/- 0.15) from 0.5 to approximately 3.5 megaelectron volts, consistent with a weak termination shock having a solar wind velocity jump ratio r=2.6(-0.2)(+0.4). However, in contradiction to many predictions, the intensity of anomalous cosmic ray (ACR) helium did not peak at the shock, indicating that the ACR source is not in the shock region local to Voyager 1. The intensities of approximately 10-megaelectron volt electrons, ACRs, and galactic cosmic rays have steadily increased since late 2004 as the effects of solar modulation have decreased.

No abstract

No abstract

The cosmic-ray proton and helium spectra from 0.2 GeV nucleon~1 to about 200 GeV nucleon~1 have been measured with the balloon-borne experiment Isotope Matter-Antimatter Experiment (IMAX) launched from Lynn Lake, Manitoba, Canada, in 1992. IMAX was designed to search for antiprotons and light isotopes using a superconducting magnet spectrometer together with scintillators, a time-of-Ñight system, and Cherenkov detectors. Using redundant detectors, an extensive examination of the instrument efficiency was carried out. We present here the absolute spectra of protons and helium corrected to the top of the atmosphere and to interstellar space. If demodulated with a solar modulation parameter of / \ 750 MV, the measured interstellar spectra between 20 and 200 GV can be represented by a power law in rigidity, with (1.42^0.21) ] 104R~2.71B0.04 (m2 GV s sr)~1 for protons and (3.15^1.03) ] 103R~2.79B0.08 (m2 GV s sr)~1 for helium. Subject headings : cosmic rays È elementary particles È ISM : abundances

No abstract