The observation of a coronal transient directed at Earth.
Abstract
The paper reports the observation of a large coronal transient that can only be interpreted as a three-dimensional structure. Its form is one which has not been observed before: a gradually expanding, sun-centered disk of excess brightness, whose projected radius increased from 4 to 8 solar radii during 0832-0958 UT on November 27, 1979. This earth-directed transient was the source of an interplanetary shock wave that reached ISEE 3 at 0649 UT, November 30, and earth at 0738 UT, November 30. Fitting the shock speed at ISEE 3 and the average transit speed from the sun to ISEE 3 to a power law of the form V = (V0)(r exp -n), it is found that V0 = 1980 km/s and n = 0.294, in good agreement with shock wave models. The shock speed predicted by the power law at 10 solar radii is 1000 km/s, in good agreement with the estimated frontal speed of the transient.
- Publication:
-
The Astrophysical Journal
- Pub Date:
- December 1982
- DOI:
- 10.1086/183932
- Bibcode:
- 1982ApJ...263L.101H
- Keywords:
-
- International Sun Earth Explorer 3;
- Interplanetary Medium;
- Solar Corona;
- Solar Limb;
- Solar Terrestrial Interactions;
- Solar Wind;
- Propagation Velocity;
- Shock Fronts;
- Shock Wave Propagation;
- Space Plasmas;
- Type 2 Bursts;
- Solar Physics;
- Shock Waves:Solar Wind;
- Solar Coronal Transients