Mass ejections from the sun and their interplanetary counterparts

Conference · Thu Jun 01 04:00:00 EDT 1995

OSTI ID:266935

Schwenn, R

Since the first observations of solar mass ejection events in the early seventies from OSO 7 and Skylab a few thousand of these remarkable dynamic incidents have been observed by now, covering about two full solar activity cycles. The mass ejecta include mainly hot coronal plasma, plus cold prominence material in variable amounts. The ejecta are often recognised in the form of interplanetary plasma clouds detected in the distant solar wind by appropriately located spacecraft. Clouds which have been energetic enough to drive large scale interplanetary shock waves can be identified most readily, but clouds without associated shocks do also occur. The plasma clouds are characterized by a variety of signatures indicating that they actually originate from injections of different material into the ambient solar wind. Usually only a few of the signatures are found simultaneously. Apparently the bidirectional streaming of halo electrons is a most reliable criterion, indicating a magnetic bottle or plasmoid topology of the clouds. The discussion of the most recent discoveries in this context will show that quite a few crucial problems still remain to be addressed by the upcoming SOHO mission.

• Research Organization: Jet Propulsion Lab., Pasadena, CA (United States)
• OSTI ID: 266935
• Report Number(s): N--96-24651; NASA-CR--199940; JPL-PUBL--95-13; NAS--1.26:199940; NIPS--95-06571; CONF-9506256--
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

66 PHYSICS
EMISSION
MASS
SHOCK WAVES
SOLAR PARTICLES
SOLAR WIND
SUN