Numerical simulation of slow shocks in the solar wind

✍ Scribed by Chin-Chun Wu; J. K. Chao; S. T. Wu; Murray Dryer

• Publisher: Springer
• Year: 1996
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 871 KB
• Volume: 165
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0038-0938
• DOI: 10.1007/bf00149720

✦ Synopsis

The evolutionary state of slow forward shock waves is examined with the use of two MHD numerical codes. Our study is intended to be exploratory rather than a detailed parametric one. The first code is one-dimensional (with three components of velocity and magnetic field) which is used to follow a slow shock that propagates into a positive gradient of density versus distance. It is found that the slow shock evolves into an extraneous (intermediate) shock wave. The second code has a spherical, one-dimensional, planar geometry (with two velocity and magnetic field components) which is used to follow a spiral interplanetary magnetic field. It is found that a slow shock type perturbation can generate a forward slow shock; a fast forward shock is generated in the front of the slow shock; a contact discontinuity is formed behind the slow shock, and a compound nonlinear MHD wave is formed behind the contact discontinuity with a fast reverse shock formed further behind. Thus, we demonstrate that the evolution of a slow shock into (solely) a fast shock, as suggested by , is much more complicated.