The configuration of the interplanetary magnetic field.

The idealized basic structure of the interplanetary magnetic field is the familiar spiral wound on a cone whose axis is the solar rotation axis. Variations in the radial velocity of the solar wind produce large scale variations in pitch; slight distortions are also produced by the nonradial component of the solar wind velocity. The high velocity streams in the solar wind seem to be more significant than magnetic polarity alternation in the sector structure of the interplanetary medium. Superposed on the ideal spiral are a variety of smaller structures. Outwardly propagating nonsinusoidal Alfven waves with scale lengths of .1 to 10 million kilometers are common. When sharp crested, they are recognized as rotational discontinuities. Other, less easily identified, waves are present part of the time. Tangential discontinuities and other convected structures have been identified, as have interplanetary shock waves.