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The acceleration of slow coronal mass ejections in the high‐speed solar wind
Author(s) -
Gosling J. T.,
Riley Pete
Publication year - 1996
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 - 10.1029/96gl02843
Subject(s) - coronal mass ejection , solar wind , physics , acceleration , wind speed , coronal hole , astrophysics , astronomy , atmospheric sciences , plasma , meteorology , classical mechanics , quantum mechanics
Using a one‐dimensional hydrodynamic code we have simulated the radial evolution of heliospheric disturbances produced by slow coronal mass ejections (CMEs) embedded in much faster leading and trailing ambient solar wind. We find that pressure gradients induced by initial speed differences between slow CMEs and faster ambient wind can produce large accelerations of the CMEs, eventually nearly up to the speed of the ambient wind. The compressions, rarefactions, and shocks associated with this acceleration persist to large heliocentric distances. Comparison with observations reveals that such effects helped accelerate two of the six high‐latitude CME events observed by Ulysses.