Overview: Fundamental Technologies, LLC, of Lawrence, Kansas, is the official production center for Ulysses HISCALE data. The following gives a brief explanation of the Ulysses Mission, and the types of instruments included in its scientific payload. Please view the Ulysses HISCALE Data Analysis Handbook for more information.

  

Mission Background: The primary purpose of the Ulysses mission, a joint venture between the European Space Agency (ESA) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), was to explore the inner heliosphere of the sun away from the ecliptic plane. This mission was unique in that the spacecraft traveled over the solar poles, exploring regions of the sun in a manner not previously attempted.

 

Scientific Payload: The Ulysses scientific payload consisted of nine experiments:

 

CODE NAME	ACRONYM	TYPE OF INVESTIGATION
BAM	SWPE	Solar wind plasma
GLG	SWICS	Solar-wind ion composition spectrometer
HED	FGM/VHM	Magnetic field flux-gate/vector helium magnetometers
KEP	EPAC/GAS	Energetic particle composition and neutral gas
SIM	COSPIN	Cosmic ray and solar charged particles
HUS	GRB	Solar x-rays/cosmic gamma ray bursts
GRU	DUST	Cosmic dust
STO	URAP	Unified radio and plasma waves
LAN	HISCALE	Low energy ions and electrons

 

The HISCALE instrument consists of five telescope apertures which use the spin of the spacecraft to sweep the full sky:

 

Two Low Energy Magnetic Spectrometers (LEMS)	Measure flux and direction of ions greater than 50 keV
Two Low Energy Foil Spectrometers (LEFS)	Measure flux and direction of electrons above 30 keV
One Composition Aperture (CA)	Measures elemental composition of the ions

 

• Ulysses HISCALE Data Analysis Handbook
• Virtual Heliospheric Observatory
• Ulysses Publications
• Ulysses Team Meetings