Ulysses observations of the interplanetary magnetic field reveal well-
ordered rotations on the timescale of several hours. These have been p
reviously identified as ''arc-polarized'' Alfven waves. Rotational dis
continuities (RDs) are often an integral part of the wave. This study
focuses on a statistical description of these rotations (ARCs) in the
ecliptic plane. It is found that (1) most ARCs are limited to 180 degr
ees or less in rotation; (2) these ARCs account for between 5 and 10%
of the total data set; (3) there appears to be no preferred helicity;
(4) the minimum-variance direction typically makes a large oblique ang
le with the average magnetic field (< B >), while the intermediate-var
iance direction is loosely aligned with < B >; (5) most of the events
display a small but significant nonzero magnetic field component in th
e direction of minimum variance; (6) the cross helicity of the ARCs te
nds to be higher than during non-ARC intervals; (7) there are 2.4 time
s more discontinuities during ARC intervals than during non-ARC interv
als; (8) essentially all ARCs are propagating outward in the rest fram
e of the solar wind plasma; and (9) there is no simple relationship be
tween the rate of occurrence of the ARCs and heliocentric distance. Co
mparing these results with the predicted signatures of a number of mod
els, it is found that arc-polarized Alfven waves with embedded RDs pro
pagating along the minimum-variance direction best fit the majority of
events.