termination shock

termination shock (plural termination shocks)

1. (astronomy) The boundary marking one of the outer limits of the Sun's influence, where the solar wind dramatically slows.
   • 2007, A. Balogh, Louis J. Lanzerotti, Steve T. Suess, The Heliosphere through the Solar Activity Cycle, Springer Science & Business Media, →ISBN, page 211:

     Studying the role of the termination shock and that of the heliosheath in cosmic ray modulation with numerical models has become most relevant since Voyager 1 crossed the termination shock on 16 December 2004 (e.g. Burlaga et al., 2005).

2. (by extension, astronomy) That point for space around any star.
3. (geoengineering) A rapid and damaging rise in temperatures once solar geoengineering measures are stopped.
   • 2018, Andy Parker, Peter J. Irvine, “The Risk of Termination Shock From Solar Geoengineering”, in Earth's Future‎, volume 6, number 3, →DOI, →ISSN, pages 456–467:

     If a larger SRM deployment were phased out sufficiently slowly, the rate of warming could be limited, and termination shock avoided, even where it exerted a very large cooling effect.

• heliosphere
• heliosheath
• heliopause
• stellar wind
• stellar magnetosphere