Low energy ions in corotating interaction regions at 1 AU: Observations

The spacecraft ISEE-3 was launched in August 1978 and subsequently placed in orbit about the Sun-Earth L1 libration point where it continuously monitored the particles and fields in interplanetary space until mid-1982. The ISEE-3 Energetic Proton Anisotropy Spectrometer makes 3-dimensional intensity measurements of 35–1600 keV, Z ? 1 ions. This data is used in conjunction with simultaneous solar wind plasma and magnetic field data from the same spacecraft to study the properties of ions in interaction regions lying at the leading edges of nine corotating high speed solar wind streams observed during October 1978–July 1979. Seven streams have an enhancement of ? 300 keV ions in the compressed fast stream plasma between the stream interface and interaction region trailing edge. These enhancements are associated with plasma heating to above 3 × 10⁵ K, have soft spectra (spectral index ～ 4.5?6.0) and in five cases show anti-solar streaming in the solar wind frame.