Masatoshi Yamauchi, IRF

Propagation of interplanetary (IP) shocks near the Earth

The interplanetary shock such as the coronal mass ejections (CME) generally propagates faster than the solar wind, and predicting the propagation speed and the arrival time of hazardous CMEs are important for the space weather prediction. Using >20 year solar wind data from two upstream monitoring spacecraft and geomagnetic signature of the shock arrival, the propagation speed is found, in average, about 10% faster than the solar wind speed.