Positive and negative sudden impulses caused by fast forward and reverse interplanetary shocks

Abstract

Fast forward interplanetary shocks (FFS) are characterized by positive jump in all interplanetary plasma parameters (solar wind speed, temperature and density) and interplanetary magnetic field. However the fast reverse interplanetary shocks (FRS) are characterized by negative jump in all mentioned parameters except solar wind speed. Observations show that FFS cause positive sudden impulses (SI) while FRS cause negative SI in the H-component of the geomagnetic field. In this work we investigate the SI caused by interplanetary shocks. We use the observed plasma parameters, upstream and downstream, to calculate the variation of dynamic pressure. We observe that the SI amplitude is larger for positive SI than for negative ones, as a consequence of the fact that FFS have larger dynamic pressure variations as compared to FRS.