Voyager 2 Observations of Plasma and Pressure Pulses

Abstract

This paper provides the latest data from Voyager 2 on plasma characteristics in the heliosheath including the observations of pressure waves in the plasma and particle data. Models and observations show that solar transients drive pressure waves through the heliosphere. Pressure pulses that could drive heliosheath waves are observed near the previous solar maximum upstream of the termination shock. We show that the most recent data is consistent with the presence of pressure waves and compare the heliosheath waves with the pressure increases in the heliosheath. The magnetic field is better correlated with density and galactic cosmic ray intensities in the supersonic solar wind than in the heliosheath. The galactic cosmic rays are correlated with the plasma and particles with a ∼30-day lag in both the supersonic wind and heliosheath.