| Session Details | |
| Section | ST - Solar & Terrestrial Sciences |
| Session Title | Heliospheric Boundaries |
| Main Convener | Dr. John Richardson (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, United States) |
| Co-convener(s) | Dr. Shuichi Matsukiyo (Kyushu University, Japan) Dr. Chi Wang (State Key Laboratory for Space Weather, China) |
| Session Description | Voyager 1 recently crossed the heliopause, the last major boundary in the heliosphere. We have observed the solar wind interaction with a variety of objects; magnetized planets, unmagnetized planets, comets, ICMEs, and now the interstellar medium (ISM). In all of these cases a sharp boundary is present between the two plasma environments and a shock forms in the solar wind upstream of this boundary, with a sheath region between these two discontinuities. However, the physics can be very different. Pickup ions are important for the comet and ISM interactions. Reconnection is important at magnetized planets and perhaps at the heliopause. ICME shocks initially expand as they move outward modifying the sheath region. All these different boundaries have their own peculiarities. The goal of this session is to compare these different boundaries and sheaths to determine the physical processes leading to observed similarities and differences. Papers covering observations, theory, and modeling of heliospheric and other astrophysical boundaries are all welcome |