Terminal flow of the solar wind

The shape of the shock front which terminates the solar wind is calculated by. assuming the streamlines in the subsonic flow region are the same as for an incompressible irrotational flow. A minimum ratio of stagnation to shock distance of 1.57 was found. Solutions which include the effect of photoionization of the interstellar medium were obtained by integrating the equations of the flow along the streamlines. A shock distance of 75 a.u. was obtained. The solutions were found to behave as predicted by previous workers on the basis of momentum-pressure balancing.