Occurrences of interplanetary shock waves near the Earth after the powerful isolated flares of 1957-1978 are investigated. The close connection between the occurrences of shock waves and the positions of magnetic axes of bipolar groups of sunspots is suggested on the basis of a statistical study. The shock waves are principally observed when the Earth finds itself near the planes that are projected through the flares in parallel to the appropriate magnetic axes of the nearest bipolar groups. This regularity is interpreted as an indirect argument for a three-dimensional geometry for the interplanetary shock waves which, when projected on these flattened to corresponding planes, are traces of large circular arcs. The typical angular scales of isolated interplanetary shock waves are estimated as ~ 150 ~ and ~ 30 ~ parallel and perpendicular, respectively, to the magnetic axes correspondingly.

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A new classification of large solar flares is presented. If the time spacings between the flares are over 2.5 days, the flares and the corresponding interplanetary streams are classified as isolated ones. The concepts of the nearest, intermediate and distant flare zones (N, I and D zones) are introduced. The limits of the zones are determined at 30° longitude intervals and at 15° latitude ones. The classification is applied to the flares of 1966-1974 (Ivanov et al., 1979). It allows one to study the interplanetary and the magnetospherical disturbances more systematically.