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Space Climate Symposium, September 19-22, 2022

Krakow, Poland
Fully on-site meeting

Space Climate 8 Meeting Abstract

The propagation of high-speed solar wind streams in the inner heliosphere

Stefan Hofmeister (Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam)

Eleanna Asvestari, Department of Physics, University of Helsinki, Finland
Jingnan Guo, CAS Key Laboratory of Geospace Environment, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, PR China
Verena Heidrich-Meisner, Institute of Experimental and Applied Physics, University of Kiel, Germany
Stephan G. Heinemann, Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, Göttingen, Germany
Jasmina Magdalenic, Centre for mathematical Plasma Astrophysics (CmPA), Department of Mathematics, KU Leuven, Belgium
Stefaan Poedts, Centre for mathematical Plasma Astrophysics (CmPA), Department of Mathematics, KU Leuven, Belgium
Evangelia Samara, Centre for mathematical Plasma Astrophysics (CmPA), Department of Mathematics, KU Leuven, Belgium
Manuela Temmer, Institute of Physics, University of Graz, Graz, Austria
Susanne Vennerstrom, National Space Institute, Technical University of Denmark, Copenhagen, Denmark
Astrid Veronig, Institute of Physics, University of Graz, Graz, Austria
Bojan Vršnak, Hvar Observatory, Faculty of Geodesy, University of Zagreb, Croatia,
Robert Wimmer-Schweingruber, Institute of Experimental and Applied Physics, University of Kiel, Germany


High-speed solar wind streams are large-scale structures in the heliosphere, which are a major source of minor and medium geomagnetic storms and substorms at Earth. In this poster, I will present a simple, not self-consistent analytical model for the propagation of high-speed streams from the Sun to Earth and for its interaction with the preceding slow solar wind. We assume that the a spatial velocity profile across the cross-section of the HSS exists close to the Sun and that this spatial velocity profile translates into a temporal one into a given radial direction from the Sun due to the solar rotation. From there on, the velocity profile disperses with time as the plasma propagates away from the Sun, and the farthest particles from the Sun impinge into the preceding slow solar wind and drive the stream interface. Despite being simplistic, it allows us to understand why the maximum solar wind speed within high-speed streams at Earth distance is dependent on the size of the high-speed streams close to the Sun, and how the velocity-density and velocity-temperature distribution of plasma parcels within high-speed streams get their specific shape.

Mode of presentation: poster (Need to be confirmed by the SOC)


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