The interaction and evolution of interplanetary shocks from 1 to beyond 60 AU

During the current solar maximum (Cycle 23), several major CMEs associated with solar flares produced large transient flows and shocks which were observed by widely‐separated spacecraft such as Wind at Earth and Voyager 2 beyond 60 AU. Using data from these spacecraft and numerical models, we study shock propagation and interaction in the outer heliosphere. We demonstrate that a strong shock in the distant heliosphere could be an outer heliospheric remnant of a strong shock in the inner heliosphere (“one to one” relationship), or it could be an outcome of the successive interaction and merging of a series of interplanetary shocks (“one to many” relationship).