Ulysses' second orbit: Remarkably different solar wind

By the time of the 34th ESLAB symposium, dedicated to the memory of John Si mpson, Ulysses had nearly reached its peak southerly latitude in its second polar orbit. The global solar wind structure observed thus far in Ulysses' second orbit is remarkably different from that observed over its first orb it. In particular, Ulysses observed highly irregular solar wind with less p eriodic stream interaction regions, much more frequent coronal mass ejectio ns, and only a single, short interval of fast solar wind. Ulysses also obse rved the slowest solar wind seen thus far in its ten-year journey (similar to 270 km s(-1)). The complicated solar wind structure undoubtedly arises f rom the more complex coronal structure found around solar activity maximum, when the large polar coronal holes have disappeared and coronal streamers, small-scale coronal holes, and frequent CMEs are found at all heliolatitud es.