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R. B. Dahlburg (NRL), G. Einaudi (University of Pisa), R. Keppens (FOM - Institute for Plasma Physics)
Recently we have participated in the development of a theory for the formation of the slow solar wind (Einaudi et al. 1999). The solar wind is modelled as a wake embedded in a neutral sheet, which models the effects of a streamer stalk. Plasmoids are formed as the magnetic field reconnect. These plasmoids are then accelerated as the wake develops nonlinearly. Good agreement was obtained with LASCO observations. The previous theory was limited to the incompressible case. We here present some results from our more recent atudy of both linear and nonlinear compressible magnetized shear layers. We find that moving density enhancements are formed, which accelerate up to a speed comparable to the slow solar wind speed. At large Mach numbers compressible disturbances can occur, with large variations in the mass density and temperature.
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