Motion of shocks through interplanetary streams

A model for the motion of flare-generated shocks through interplanetary streams is presented which illustrates the effects of a stream-shock interaction on the shock strength and geometry. It is a gasdynamic calculation based on Whitham's (1958) method and on an empirical approximation for the relevant characteristics of streams. The results show that the Mach number of a shock can decrease appreciably to near unity in the interaction region ahead of streams and that the interaction of a spherically symmetric shock with a spiral-shaped corotating stream can cause significant distortions of the initial shock-front geometry. The geometry of a shock discussed by Lepping and Chao (1972) is qualitatively explained by this model.