A piston-driven shock in the solar corona
- Resource Type
- Authors
- Murray Dryer; Patrick S. McIntosh; A. Maxwell
- Source
- Solar Physics. 97:401-413
- Subject
- Physics
Shock wave
Solar flare
Astrophysics::High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
Coronal hole
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
Solar physics
law.invention
Shock (mechanics)
Space and Planetary Science
law
Physics::Space Physics
Coronal mass ejection
Astrophysics::Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
Astrophysics::Earth and Planetary Astrophysics
Magnetohydrodynamics
Flare
- Language
- ISSN
- 1573-093X
0038-0938
A solar flare that occurred on the west limb at 20:38 UT on Mar. 25, 1981 generated a massive, rapidly expanding optical coronal transient, which moved outward with an approximately constant velocity of 800 km/s. An associated magnetohydrodynamic shock traveled out ahead of the transient with a velocity estimated to be approximately 1000 km/s. The optical and radio data on the transient and shock fit well with general theories concerning piston-driven shocks and with current MHD models for propagation of such shocks through the solar corona.