ON THE OFF-ECLIPTIC DISTRIBUTIONS OF ANOMALOUS COSMIC-RAYS AND THEIR RELATION TO THE LARGE-SCALE GEOMETRY OF THE HELIOSPHERIC SHOCK

The scenario explaining the origin of the anomalous component of cosmi c rays (ACR) implies a close relation between these high energy partic les and the solar wind termination shock representing their main accel eration region. Consequently, one should expect the ACR distributions in the heliosphere to reflect some information about the structure as well as the large-scale geometry of the shock. We study the influence of a non-spherically symmetric heliospheric shock on the off-ecliptic - i.e. high latitude - ACR distributions using a two-dimensional model including their anisotropic diffusion and drift in the heliospheric m agnetic field as well as a solar wind flow dependent on the heliograph ic latitude. The model calculations are used to investigate the probab ility of a possible polar elongation of the heliospheric shock from ob servations of the distributions of the ACR at high latitudes during so lar minimum conditions.