ULYSSES AT HIGH HELIOGRAPHIC LATITUDES - AN INTRODUCTION

The unique in situ observations acquired by the scientific instrumenta tion on board the Ulysses spacecraft have provided, for the first time , a comprehensive, 3-dimensional view of the heliosphere from the sola r equator to the poles near solar minimum. Since beginning its journey out of the ecliptic plane in February, 1992, Ulysses has acquired a w ealth of truly new observations concerning the particles and fields in the previously unreachable high-latitude regions of the heliosphere. The articles that comprise this special issue are devoted to recent re sults from the high-latitude passes of Ulysses, including the rapid tr ansit from the southern to the northern hemisphere. This paper serves as an introduction to these articles, and provides a short summary of the major scientific findings from the mission to date. Also included is a description of the various Ulysses data archives and their access .