On expansion of magnetic clouds in the solar wind

Vandas, M.; Geranios, A.; Romashets, E.

doi:doi:10.5194/astra-5-35-2009

Astrophys. Space Sci. Trans., 5, 35-38, 2009
www.astrophys-space-sci-trans.net/5/35/2009/
doi:10.5194/astra-5-35-2009
© Author(s) 2009. This work is distributed
under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

Volume 5, issue 1

06 Aug 2009

On expansion of magnetic clouds in the solar wind
M. Vandas¹, A. Geranios², and E. Romashets^3,4
¹Astronomical Institute, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, 14131 Praha 4, Czech Republic
²Physics Department, University of Athens, Panepistimioupoli-Kouponia, Athens 15771, Greece
³Prairie View A& M University, Mail Stop 2250, PO Box 519, Prairie View TX 77446, USA
⁴Institute of Terrestrial Magnetism, Ionosphere, and Radio Wave Propagation of Russian Academy of Sciences, Troitsk, 142190, Russia

Received: 20 Mar 2009 – Revised: 01 Jun 2009 – Accepted: 09 Jun 2009 – Published: 06 Aug 2009

Abstract. Magnetic clouds are supposed to be large interplanetary flux ropes propagating away from the Sun. Due to enhanced inner magnetic pressure, they expand during their travel. We have analyzed 21 magnetic clouds from Wind observations and fitted them by our model. Comparison of the time-dependent model with observations is shown for several cases with a detailed discussion. The model describes behavior of compared quantities satisfactorily. In addition to magnetic field vectors, also velocity vectors were modeled and it was found that radial velocity component behaves as expected. Analysis of velocity components put models under a more strict test and yields more confidence into models and derived magnetic cloud parameters.

Citation: Vandas, M., Geranios, A., and Romashets, E.: On expansion of magnetic clouds in the solar wind, Astrophys. Space Sci. Trans., 5, 35-38, doi:10.5194/astra-5-35-2009, 2009.

Astrophysics and Space Sciences Transactions

An Open Access Journal of the Arbeitsgemeinschaft Extraterrestrische Forschung e.V.