Solar-terrestrial storm of November 18–20, 2003. 1. Near-Earth disturbances in the solar wind

The structure, configuration, dynamics, and solar sources of the near-Earth MHD disturbance of the solar wind on November 20, 2003, is considered. The disturbances of October 24 and November 22 after flares from the same AR 10484 (10501) are compared. The velocity field in the leading part of the sporadic disturbance is for the first time studied in the coordinate system stationary relative to the bow shock. A possible scenario of the physical processes in the course of this solar-terrestrial storm is discussed in comparison with the previously developed scenario for the storm of July 15, 2000. It has been indicated that (1) the near-Earth disturbance was observed at the sector boundary (HCS) and in its vicinities and (2) the disturbance MHD structure included: the complicated bow shock, wide boundary layer with reconnecting fields at a transition from the shock to the magnetic cloud, magnetic cloud with a magnetic cavity including packed substance of an active filament, and return shock layer (supposedly). It has been found out that the shock front configuration and the velocity field are reproduced at an identical position of AR and HCS relative to the Earth on November 20 and 24. It has been indicated that the maximal magnetic induction in the cloud satisfied the condition B _m = (8πn ₁ m _p)^1/2(D ? NV₁), i.e., depended on the dynamic impact on the cloud during all three storms [Ivanov et al., 1974]. When the disturbance was related to solar sources, the attention has been paid to the parallelism of the axes of symmetry of the active filament, transient coronal hole, coronal mass ejection, zero line of the open coronal field (HCS), and the axis of the near-Earth magnetic cloud: the regularity previously established in the scenario of the storm of July 15, 2000 [Ivanov et al., 2005]. It has been indicated that the extremely large B _m value in the cloud of October 20 was caused by a strong suppression of the series of postflare shocks reflected from the heliospheric streamer.