The Solar Magnetic Hump, Heliopause, and the Very Local Interstellar Medium

Abstract

The magnetic hump was observed from 2020.4 to ~2022 by Burlaga et al. who offered the hypothesis that it originated at the Sun during the declining phase of the solar cycle. Voyager 1 observed intermittency of 1 hr increments of the magnetic field from 2013 through 2019, as well as in the magnetic hump that began at the jump pf2 at 2020.4 and ended at ~2022. Throughout this interval, the intermittency in the components of B and the magnitude B was described by the Tsallis distribution (q-Gaussian distribution). The q-Gaussian distributions have been observed throughout the solar wind and heliosheath. However, there was little or no intermittency in the 1 hr increments of the magnetic field observed by Voyager 1 from ~2022.0 through day 270, 2023. During this interval Voyager 1 observed intermittency with a Gaussian distribution, which is associated with Boltzmann–Gibbs statistics. The boundary between these two regions, at ~2022.0, coincides with the heliopause predicted by Fisk & Gloeckler. Alternatively, the Voyager 1 observations might be a solar cycle effect.