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Measurements on a shock wave generated by a solar flare

Abstract

Shock waves generated by intense solar flares may be driven by a large amount of ejected mass, about 5 Ɨ 1016 g, and the total energy involved may be of the order of 1032 erg. The shocks may have initial velocities of the order of 2,000 km sāˆ’1 and, in their exodus through the corona, may be accompanied by fast-moving optical transients, the emission of highly characteristic radio signatures and the acceleration of particles to quasi-relativistic velocities1. Here we review data on a high-velocity shock generated by a flare on 18 August 1979, 1400 UT, comment on some previously deduced velocities for the shock2, and then present a model, based on current computer programs to account for the overall characteristics of the shock as it propagated through the corona and the interplanetary plasma

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Maxwell, A., Dryer, M. Measurements on a shock wave generated by a solar flare. Nature 300, 237ā€“239 (1982). https://doi.org/10.1038/300237a0

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