Three-dimensional model of corotating streams in the solar wind 2. Hydrodynamic streams

This paper explores theoretical aspects of corotating solar wind dynamics on a global scale by means of numerical simulations executed with a nonlinear, inviscid, adiabatic, single-fluid, three-dimensional (3-D) hydrodynamic formulation. The study begins with a simple hypothetical 3-D stream structure defined on a source surface located at 35 R/sub S/ and carefully documents its evolution to 1 AU under the influence of solar rotation. By manipulating the structure of this prototype configuration at the source surface, it is possible to elucidate the factors most strongly affecting stream evolution: (1) the intrinsic correlations among density, temperature, and velocity existing near the source; (2) the amplitude of the stream; (3) the longitudinal breadth of the stream; (4) the latitudinal breadth of the stream; and (5) the heliographic latitude of centroid of the stream. The action of these factors is best understood in terms of momentum arguments of relative simplicity and general application