Heliosheath Magnetic Field and Plasma Observed by Voyager2 during 2012 in the Rising Phase of Solar Cycle 24

We discuss magnetic field and plasma observations of the heliosheath made by Voyager 2 (V2) during 2012, when V2 was observing the effects of increasing solar activity following the solar minimum in 2009. The average magnetic field strength B was 0.14 nT and B reached 0.29 nT on day 249. V2 was in a unipolar region in which the magnetic polarity was directed away from the Sun along the Parker spiral 88% of the time, indicating that V2 was poleward of the heliospheric current sheet throughout most of 2012. The magnetic flux at V2 during 2012 was constant. A merged interaction region (MIR) was observed, and the flow speed increased as the MIR moved past V2. The MIR caused a decrease in the >70MeV nuc cosmic-ray intensity. The increments of B can be described by a q-Gaussian distribution with q=1.2±0.1 for daily averages and q=1.82±0.03 for hour averages. Eight isolated current sheets (“PBLs”) and four closely spaced pairs of current sheets were observed. The average change of B across the current sheets was a factor of ≈2, and B increased or decreased with equal probability. Magnetic holes and magnetic humps were also observed. The characteristic size of the PBLs was ≈6 RL, where RL is the Larmor radius of protons, and the characteristic sizes of the magnetic holes and humps were ≈38 RL and ≈11 RL, respectively.