Distortion of the heliospheric plasma sheet by interplanetary shocks

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Abstract
A 2½D MHD model is used to investigate mutual interactions between interplanetary shocks with the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF), An ambient solar wind is considered with a flat equatorial heliospheric current sheet (HCS) that is embedded within a finite thickness heliospheric plasma sheet (HPS). Two different velocity pulses are introduced with four different latitudinal positions at 0.1 AU. We found that large values of the meridional IMF originate when the shock interacts with the HPS. This is caused by field‐line draping around the highly distorted shock driver and by deflection of the HCS in asymmetric situations.