Implications of a weak termination shock

Abstract

Recent observations from the Voyager spacecraft have suggested that the spectrum of the anomalous cosmic ray component is relatively steep at the termination shock, which is believed to be responsible for accelerating these particles. This conclusion argues that the termination shock must be weak, which in turn requires that the upstream Mach number in the solar wind must be quite low, ∼2.4. It is pointed out that such conditions are unlikely to prevail at all locations along the shock front. However, it is possible for such conditions to exist at the interface between high speed streams at high heliographic latitudes and the region at low latitudes where high and low speed streams have interacted and come into equilibrium. This discussion suggests a preferred location for the injection of the anomalous component into the shock acceleration process.