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The polar heliospheric magnetic field
Author(s) -
Jokipii J. R.,
Kóta J.
Publication year - 1989
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/gl016i001p00001
Subject(s) - physics , cosmic ray , heliospheric current sheet , polar , magnetic field , spiral (railway) , magnitude (astronomy) , cosmic cancer database , astrophysics , transverse plane , field (mathematics) , computational physics , geophysics , interplanetary magnetic field , astronomy , solar wind , quantum mechanics , mathematical analysis , mathematics , structural engineering , pure mathematics , engineering
We suggest that the polar heliospheric magnetic field, at large heliocentric distances, may deviate considerably from the generally accepted Archimedean spiral. Instead, we suggest that the large‐scale field near the poles may be dominated by randomly‐oriented transverse magnetic fields with magnitude much larger than the average spiral. The average vector field is still the spiral, but the average magnitude may be much larger. In addition, the field direction is transverse to the radial direction most of the time instead of being nearly radial. This magnetic‐field structure has important consequences for the transport of cosmic rays. Preliminary model calculations suggest changes in the radial gradient of galactic cosmic rays which may improve agreement with observations.