Paper: astro-ph/0601359
Date: Tue, 17 Jan 2006 03:30:06 GMT (848kb)

Title: Short-term Variations in the Galactic Environment of the Sun

Authors: Priscilla C. Frisch and Jonathan D. Slavin

Comments: The article will appear in the book "Solar Journey: The Significance
of Our Galactic Environment for the Heliosphere and Earth", Springer, in
press (2006), editor P. C. Frisch
\\
The galactic environment of the Sun varies over short timescales as the Sun
and interstellar clouds travel through space. Small variations in the dynamics,
ionization, density, and magnetic field strength of the interstellar medium
(ISM) surrounding the Sun yield pronounced changes in the heliosphere. We
discuss essential information required to understand short-term variations in
the galactic environment of the Sun, including the distribution and radiative
transfer properties of nearby ISM, and variations in the boundary conditions of
the heliosphere as the Sun traverses clouds. The most predictable transitions
are when the Sun emerged from the Local Bubble interior and entered the cluster
of local interstellar clouds flowing past the Sun, within the past 140,000
years, and again when the Sun entered the local interstellar cloud now
surrounding and inside of the solar system, sometime during the past 44,000
years.

\\ ( http://arXiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0601359 , 848kb)