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This contribution to the 100th commemoration of the discovery of cosmic rays (6–8 August, 2012 in Bad Saarow, Germany) is about observations of those cosmic rays that are sensitive to the structure and the dynamics of the heliosphere. This places them in the energy range of 107–1010 eV. For higher energies the heliosphere becomes transparent; below this energy range the particles become strictly locked into the solar wind. Rather than give a strict chronological development, the paper is divided into distinct topics. It starts with the Pioneer/Voyager missions to the outer edges of the heliosphere, because the most recent observations indicate that a distinct boundary of the heliosphere might have been reached at the time of the meeting. Thereafter, the Ulysses mission is described as a unique one because it is still the only spacecraft that has explored the heliosphere at very high latitudes. Next, anomalous cosmic rays, discovered in 1972–1974, constitute a separate component that is ideally suited to study the acceleration and transport of energetic particles in the heliosphere. At this point the history and development of ground-based observations is discussed, with its unique contribution to supply a stable, long-term record. The last topic is about solar energetic particles with energies up to ∼1010 eV http://www.journals.elsevier.com/astroparticle-physics/

Voyager 1 has observed strong increases in the intensities of 2-160 MeV electrons since crossing the termination shock of the heliosphere in 2004 December. Before this time these intensities were submerged below the detector background, except for occasional transient events. These increases are large compared to the concurrent increases of positive ions such as H, He, and O. A significant part is probably due to temporal effects as the heliosphere was recovering to solar minimum conditions from 2005 to early 2010. The intensity observed by Voyager 2 since its crossing of the shock in 2007 September is 5-10 times lower than that observed by Voyager 1, which is so low that the electron intensity may still be below the background produced by high-energy protons in the detector. This points to a large north-south asymmetry in the properties of the heliosheath. It is shown that the observations suggest that these electrons are not freshly accelerated on the termination shock, but rather that they are of galactic origin-while they may be re-accelerated by that shock. In this paper, these intensities are modeled with numerical solutions of the cosmic-ray transport equation. It is shown that because they are relativistic, the electrons are muchmore » more sensitive to the form of the diffusion coefficient at low rigidities than ions, and that this can explain the asymmetry.« less

Recent accurate measurements of the cosmic-ray intensity ratio ^(51)V/^(51)Cr below 1 GeV nucleon^(-1) provide a powerful new tool to study cosmic-ray modulation in the heliosphere. This paper describes how energy changes during this modulation process influence this ratio. In particular, our model includes acceleration at the solar wind termination shock, and we find that this mechanism significantly enhances the ^(51)V/^(51)Cr ratio at 1 AU. It is also shown that this acceleration makes the ratio more sensitive to the form of local low-energy interstellar spectra, below ~100 MeV nucleon^(-1), than without it. Specifically, this acceleration provides an independent confirmation of the consensus that low-energy spectra should be flatter than their high-energy power-law forms.

During the solar minimum period of 1954 the cosmic-ray diurnal variation as observed by neutron monitors and muon telescopes underwent a dramatic swing in its direction of maximum intensity, from the normal value between 16:00 and 18:00 local time to as early as 08:00. It is shown that this swing can be explained as being due to a negative radial density gradient of cosmic rays in the inner heliosphere and that this negative gradient is caused by large radial and latitudinal diffusion mean free paths that bring in particles from high latitudes. In principle, such large diffusion mean free paths should simultaneously cause high intensities, as were observed in 1954.

New insights regarding the form of the accelerated anomalous cosmic ray spectrum at the solar wind termination shock, obtained from solutions of the cosmic ray transport equation, are presented. A simple analytical expression for the spectrum on the shock is derived, and its dependence on the acceleration parameters is shown. Particular attention is paid to the high-energy cutoff of this spectrum. This expression and its parameterization should be applicable for the acceleration of charged particles in any spherical shock.

We review the observed properties of anomalous cosmic rays and the present status of our knowledge of the processes by which they originate. We compiled a comprehensive set of ACR energy spectral data from various spacecraft throughout the heliosphere during the passes of Ulysses over the poles of the Sun and present first results of a detailed modeling effort. In several contributions, we discuss the questions of injection and possible pre-acceleration of pickup ions, summarize new observations on the ionic charge composition, and present new results on the composition of minor ions in ACRs.

The temporal variation of the cosmic-ray intensity in the heliosphere is called cosmic-ray modulation. The main periodicity is the response to the 11-year solar activity cycle. Other variations include a 27-day solar rotation variation, a diurnal variation, and irregular variations such as Forbush decreases. General awareness of the importance of this cosmic-ray modulation has greatly increased in the last two decades, mainly in communities studying cosmogenic nuclides, upper atmospheric physics and climate, helio-climatology, and space weather, where corrections need to be made for these modulation effects. Parameterized descriptions of the modulation are even used in archeology and in planning the flight paths of commercial passenger jets. The qualitative, physical part of the modulation is generally well-understood in these communities. The mathematical formalism that is most often used to quantify it is the so-called Force-Field approach, but the origins of this approach are somewhat obscure and it is not always used correct. This is mainly because the theory was developed over more than 40 years, and all its aspects are not collated in a single document. This paper contains a formal mathematical description intended for these wider communities. It consists of four parts: (1) a description of the relations between four indicators of “energy”, namely energy, speed, momentum and rigidity, (2) the various ways of how to count particles, (3) the description of particle motion with transport equations, and (4) the solution of such equations, and what these solutions mean. Part (4) was previously described in Caballero-Lopez and Moraal (J. Geophys. Res, 109: A05105, doi:10.1029/2003JA010358 2004). Therefore, the details are not all repeated here. The style of this paper is not to be rigorous. It rather tries to capture the relevant tools to do modulation studies, to show how seemingly unrelated results are, in fact, related to one another, and to point out the historical context of some of the results. The paper adds no new knowledge. The summary contains advice on how to use the theory most effectively. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11214-011-9819-3

[1] Adiabatic energy losses form a well-understood part of cosmic ray modulation in the heliosphere. However, shock acceleration at the solar wind termination shock and the modulation in the heliosheath beyond this shock alter the net cosmic ray energy change from that in standard noshock modulation models. This paper compares cosmic ray energy changes in several versions of the modulation process, from the simplest Force-Field model to one with a shock and heliosheath included. Implications for observations and their interpretation are noted. In particular, the shock acceleration mechanism seems to provide a sensitive probe of interstellar spectra at low energies (

The ground-level enhancement (GLE) of 1989 September 29 is one of the largest of 71 solar energetic particle events observed by neutron monitors on Earth. It was smaller than the record-breaking GLE 5 of 1956 February 23, but by some measures it was larger than GLE 69 of 2005 January 20. It is also the most extensively studied of the 71 GLEs, and it was observed by more than 50 ground-based detectors in the worldwide network. This paper contains another study of the event, with the main difference from previous studies that all the existing observations are employed, instead of the usual selection of stations. An effort is made to represent all the information graphically. This reveals new insight in the event, mainly about its time profile. The main conclusion is that the event is the best example available of a "classical" GLE that has a gradual increase toward peak intensity and does not contain two or more distinct peaks as inferred previously. It does, however, suggest that there were two acceleration or release mechanisms: a prompt, rapid one and a delayed, slower one. This conclusion is based on a detailed comparison with GLE 69 of 2005 January 20, which is the best-known example of a double-peaked event with a "prompt" component. It is also found that the rigidity spectrum was probably softer than derived in several previous studies, and that the decay phase of the event reveals that the cosmic-ray diffusion coefficient in the neutron monitor range is proportional to rigidity http://iopscience.iop.org/0004-637X http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/790/2/154 South African NRF grant SNA2011110300007 and Mexican PAPIIT-UNAM grant IN110413.

The global processes that determine cosmic ray modulation are reviewed. The essential elements of the theory which describes cosmic ray behavior in the heliosphere are summarized, and a series of discussions is presented which compare the expectations of this theory with observations of the spatial and temporal behavior of both galactic cosmic rays and the anomalous component; the behavior of cosmic ray electrons and ions; and the 26-day variations in cosmic rays as a function of heliographic latitude. The general conclusion is that the current theory is essentially correct. There is clear evidence, in solar minimum conditions, that the cosmic rays and the anomalous component behave as is expected from theory, with strong effects of gradient and curvature drifts. There is strong evidence of considerable latitude transport of the cosmic rays, at all energies, but the mechanism by which this occurs is unclear. Despite the apparent success of the theory, there is no single choice for the parameters which describe cosmic ray behavior, which can account for all of the observed temporal and spatial variations, spectra, and electron vs. ion behavior.

We have studied short-lived (21 minute average duration), highly anisotropic pulses of cosmic rays that constitute the first phase of 10 large ground-level enhancements (GLEs), and which extend to rigidities in the range 5‐20 GV. We provide a set of constraints that must be met by any putative acceleration mechanism for this type of solar-energetic-particle (SEP) event. The pulses usually have very short rise-times (three to five minutes) at all rigidities, and exhibit the remarkable feature that the intensity drops precipitously by 50% to 70% from the maximum within another three to five minutes. Both the rising and falling phases exhibit velocity dispersion, which indicates that there are particles with rigidities in the range 1 90 MeV gamma-ray bursts, indicating that freshly accelerated SEPs had impinged on higher-density matter in the chromosphere prior to the departure of the SEP pulse for Earth. This study was based on an updated archive of the 71 GLEs in the historic record, which is now available for public use.