The Solar and Heliospheric Research Group

University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

Ulysses/SWICS

The Solar Wind Ion Composition Spectrometer (SWICS) on Ulysses is
designed to determine uniquely the elemental and ionic-charge
composition, and the temperatures and mean speeds of all major
solar-wind ions, from H through Fe, at solar wind speeds ranging from
175 km/s (protons) to 1280 km/s (Fe+8). The instrument, which covers
an energy per charge range from 0.16 to 60 keV/e in ~13 min, combines
an electrostatic analyzer with post-acceleration, followed by a
time-of-flight and energy measurement.

The Ulysses spacecraft was launched in 1991 into an extended orbit
around the Sun and Jupiter, rougly orthogonal to the ecliptic plane.
This allowed Ulysses to make the first ever measurements over the
poles of the Sun.

News

Ulysses to End Mission Today

30 Jun 2009 -- Ulysses was launched in 1990 as a joint ESA/NASA mission and embarked on a unique orbit that took it up to high latitudes where it was able to sample the space environment influenced by processes in the Sun's polar regions. Ulysses provided ground breaking measurements of the global nature of the heliospheric magnetic field and particle acceleration and transport, in addition to enabling characterization of the fast and slow solar wind. For more information, please visit this link.

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