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Comment on “Interplanetary shocks unconnected with earthbound coronal mass ejections” by T. A. Howard and S. J. Tappin
Author(s) -
Gopalswamy Nat,
Akiyama Sachiko,
Yashiro Seiji,
Kasper J.
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/2005gl024983
Subject(s) - interplanetary spaceflight , coronal mass ejection , physics , astrophysics , astronomy , solar wind , nuclear physics , plasma
[1] Recently, Howard and Tappin [2005] (hereinafter referred to as HT) reported on a set of 7 interplanetary (IP) shocks, apparently not connected with any detectable coronal mass ejection (CME) activity along the Sun-Earth line and concluded that there was no evidence to associate 6 of them with corotating interaction regions (CIRs); they were uncertain about one event. Based on these results, HT put forth a proposal that the 6 shocks were associated with ‘‘erupting magnetic structures’’ or EMSs and that EMSs rather than CIRs are the dominant cause of IP shocks that cannot be associated with halo CMEs. Our analysis of these events does not agree with these conclusions due the following reasons: (1) the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) mission had a data gap for one event , and (23 October 1998), so the CME association could not be checked; (2) the 18 May 1999 and 23 December 2001 shocks were likely CIR-related; (3) the remaining 4 shocks were CME-related, two (7 April 1998 and 9 November 2002) reported in the published literature [Manoharan et al., 2004] and the other two (both on 23 August 1999) were associated with two successive CMEs from the same region ejected off the Sun-earth line. Therefore, we do not see any basis for invoking anything other than CIRs and CMEs. In the following, we revisit the source of each of the 7 shocks.