Recent Voyager Evidence for Rapid Transport of Flare-Generated Disturbances by Polar Coronal Hole Streams

Disturbances observed by Voyagers 1 and 2 during the past five years or more may have been transported by plasma emitted from polar coronal holes, thereby having travelled much faster from the Sun to the termination shock than previously recognized. Estimating the average speed to the shock as 750 km/s has produced consistently good associations between solar flares, or groups of them, and dynamic pressure increases at Voyager 2 and plasma wave events at Voyager 1. Furthermore, magnetograph observations confirm that polar coronal holes were present around the times of the flares to which the events at the Voyagers have been attributed. These calculations also provide revised estimates of the transport of heliospheric current sheet fluctuations. We discuss the possibilities that extrapolations from past observations and simulations based on them may provide insight into currently challenging issues and possible future developments.