The Ulysses Solar Minimum Mission CD-ROM archive

On 30 September 1995, Ulysses completed the primary phase of its mission, b ecoming the first spacecraft to chart the high-latitude regions of the heli osphere. The spacecraft's scientific payload returned unique and continuous data throughout this so-called Solar Minimum Mission, covering the in-ecli ptic transfer to Jupiter and its flyby, the descent to the south pole of th e Sun, the rapid transit from the southern to the northern hemisphere, and the passage over the north pole. Currently, Ulysses is making its second so lar orbit during a time of increased solar activity, in contrast to the rel atively quiet solar minimum conditions experienced during the first orbit. The data collected by the many experiments flown on Ulysses during the Sola r Minimum Mission are now available as ESA Special Publication SP-1230, com prising a collection of eight CD-ROMs. In addition to the scientific measur ements made by the Ulysses experiments, this CD-ROM archive also contains b ackground articles about the Ulysses mission, extensive instrument document ation and plots of selected data parameters. The Ulysses Solar Minimum Mission CD-ROM archive is the first release of Ul ysses data on a permanent storage medium by ESA, and complements the ESA Ul ysses data archive which can be accessed through the Internet. Updates to t his CD-ROM archive and further releases of Ulysses data are planned for the future.