The dynamics and collapse of antisunward propagating density discontinuities
("blobs") in the streamer belt
Victor Eselevich
Abstract
It is shown that antisunward propagating mass inhomoegenities with a typical
lifetime of about several hours are randomly produced inside ray structures
of the streamer belt. Plots of their velocity increase with increasing
R are similar to those obtained in [Sheeley et al., Astrophys. J., 485,
472, 1997] for "blobs" carried away by the bulk solar wind. When the "blob's"
velocity with respect to the main solar wind is larger than the local sound
velocity, a "blob" collapse phenomenon is observed, implying that as the
"blob" moves away from the Sun, its leading edge is decelerated and its
trailing edge is accelerated. This results in an abrupt decrease in its
longitudinal size and in an increase of plasma density inside it. The shock
formation at the "blob's" leading edge is regarded as one plausible reason
for the deceleration.
authors: V.G. Eselevich and M. V. Eselevich
organization Institute of Solar-Terrestrial
Physics, Irkutsk, Russia, (E-mail:esel@iszf.irk.ru)