The interaction effect of fast and slow solar wind streams in interplanetary space on wind characteristics at the Earth's orbit

✍ Scribed by V. G. Fainshtein

• Publisher: Springer
• Year: 1991
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 984 KB
• Volume: 136
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0038-0938
• DOI: 10.1007/bf00151702

✦ Synopsis

By analyzing observational data, it has been possible to determine quantitative relationships that represent the role of the interaction of fast and slow solar wind (SW) streams in the formation of characteristic SW properties at the Earth's orbit.

It is shown that maximum values of magnetic field B ~t and density n M peaks in the neighbourhood of the sector boundary (SB) at the base of the high-speed stream front are associated with solar wind characteristics such as the SW minimum velocity near the SB, V,,, the maximmn velocity in the central part of the fast stream, VM, and the slope/? of the magnetic field neutral line to the solar equatorial plane at R = 2.5 Re(R e is the solar radius).

It is concluded that enhancements of absolute values of the z-component of the magnetic field, IB21, recorded at the Earth's orbit, are largely attributable, at sufficiently large values of/~, to the interaction of different-velocity SW streams.