LOW-VELOCITY SHOCK-CLOUD ENCOUNTERS .1. 2-DIMENSIONAL HYDRODYNAMICAL MODEL

Shocks propagating in the interstellar medium (ISM) play an important role in the life of molecular clouds. Through a theoretical study of i nteraction between clouds and shocks we can understand, for example, t he density distribution of observed molecular clouds and the first ste ps of star formation. The only way to study of interaction in detail i s via a numerical hydrodynamical simulation. In this paper we present the first results of a. hydrocode which is able to follow the processe s after the collision between the cloud and shock front.Our main theor etical result is that the chemical processes (e.g. H-2 dissociation) c an affect the dynamical processes significantly. Global parameters of the cloud are calculated for the comparision of the simulation and the observations.