LOW-ENERGY ANOMALOUS IONS AT NORTHERN HELIOLATITUDES

Measurements of the anomalous component of nitrogen, oxygen, and neon ions (similar to 0.5-8 MeV/nucl.) at northern heliolatitudes by the HI -SCALE instrument on the Ulysses spacecraft show that the energy spect ra of these ions are essentially flat from the highest heliolatitudes (80 degrees N) to near the ecliptic plane. For energies from 1-8 MeV/n ucl., the northern hemisphere O fluxes are about a factor of two large r than those measured earlier at high southern latitudes. During simil ar to 150 days (similar to 5 solar rotations) in late 1996, solar acti vity added low energy (similar to 0.5-1 MeV/nucl.) N, O, Ne, and Fe io ns to the high latitude interplanetary medium. The northern hemisphere measurements are consistent with essentially no latitude gradient for particles in this energy range at this time. These results call into some question the importance of acceleration of anomalous cosmic rays of this energy by corotating interaction regions in the inner heliosph ere.