Articles | Volume 26, issue 4
https://doi.org/10.5194/angeo-26-1029-2008
https://doi.org/10.5194/angeo-26-1029-2008
13 May 2008
 | 13 May 2008

Energetic particle measurements from the Ulysses/COSPIN/LET instrument obtained during the August/September 2005 events

O. E. Malandraki, R. G. Marsden, C. Tranquille, R. J. Forsyth, H. A. Elliott, and A. Geranios

Abstract. We report recent observations of energetic particles at energies 1–40 MeV/n made by the COSPIN/LET instrument onboard the Ulysses spacecraft during the period of intense solar activity in August/September 2005 during the declining phase of solar cycle 23. Ulysses, having started its climb to high southern latitudes for the third time, was located at ~5 AU, at a helio-latitude of ~30 degrees south. It detected the arrival of a solar wind compound stream resulting from the merging of a series of fast halo CMEs ejected from the Sun in late August and early September 2005 and their interaction with the pre-existing pattern of solar wind Stream Interaction Regions (SIRs) in the ambient medium through which they propagated. The heavy ion intensities are observed by COSPIN/LET to remain elevated for at least 20 days following the very intense X17.0/3B solar flare on 7 September and its associated very fast CME (plane of sky projected CME speed ~2400 km s−1). We carry out an analysis of the composition of the particle increases observed at the location of the spacecraft. Although the composition signatures were predominantly Solar Energetic Particle (SEP)-like, after the passage of the compound stream over Ulysses, in association with a characteristic forward and reverse shock pair, the observations showed evidence of an enhanced He content.