Distances to the termination shock and heliopause from a simulation analysis of the 1992–93 heliospheric radio emission event

Abstract

A new heliospheric radio emission event observed by Voyagers 1 and 2 in mid‐1992 is believed to have been produced by the interaction of an interplanetary shock with the heliopause. The shock is thought to have originated near the Sun during a period of intense solar activity in late‐May and early‐June, 1991. The observed travel time of the shock to the heliopause is 408 days; the initial speed is estimated to be between 600 and 800 km/s. We use a numerical gasdynamic simulation of an interplanetary shock, propagating through an equilibrium solution of the solar wind/interstellar medium interaction, to compute the distances to the termination shock and the heliopause that are consistent with these observations. For a shock speed of 600 km/s, the termination shock is located at 92 AU, and the heliopause is located at 128 AU. These distances increase to 112 AU and 156 AU when the shock speed is increased to 800 km/s.