  At the Voyager 1 spacecraft in the outer heliosphere, after a series of
complex intensity changes starting at about May 8th, the intensities of both
anomalous cosmic rays (ACR) and galactic cosmic rays (GCR) changed suddenly and
decisively on August 25th (121.7 AU from the Sun). The ACR started the
intensity decrease with an initial e-folding rate of intensity decrease of ~1
day. Within a matter of a few days, the intensity of 1.9-2.7 MeV protons and
helium nuclei had decreased to less than 0.1 of their previous value and after
a few weeks, corresponding to the outward movement of V1 by ~0.1 AU, these
intensities had decreased by factors of at least 300-500 and are now lower than
most estimates of the GCR spectrum for these lower energies and also at higher
energies. The decrease was accompanied by large rigidity dependent anisotropies
in addition to the extraordinary rapidity of the intensity changes. Also on
August 25th the GCR protons, helium and heavier nuclei as well as electrons
increased suddenly with the intensities of electrons reaching levels ~30-50%
higher than observed just one day earlier. This increase for GCR occurred over
~1 day for the lowest rigidity electrons, and several days for the higher
rigidity nuclei of rigidity ~0.5-1.0 GV. After reaching these higher levels the
intensities of the GCR of all energies from 2 to 400 MeV have remained
essentially constant with intensity levels and spectra that may represent the
local GCR. These intensity changes will be presented in more detail in this,
and future articles, as this story unfolds.
