Characteristics of interplanetary CMEs observed by Ulysses

Abstract

The characteristics of discontinuities associated with interplanetary coronal mass ejections and their distribution in the heliosphere have been studied in detail. For this, jumps in solar wind plasma parameters like wind velocity, IMF and proton density across the shocks and discontinuities have been evaluated and used to characterize them. The distribution of the plasma parameters across the discontinuities with respect to heliolatitude and with radial distance from the Sun have been analyzed using the Ulysses data taken during its three orbits around the Sun.