On 5 April 2010 an interplanetary (IP) shock was detected by the Wind
spacecraft ahead of Earth, followed by a fast (average speed 650 km/s) IP
coronal mass ejection (ICME). During the subsequent moderate geomagnetic storm
(minimum Dst = -72 nT, maximum Kp=8-), communication with the Galaxy 15
satellite was lost. We link images from STEREO/SECCHI to the near-Earth in situ
observations and show that the ICME did not decelerate much between Sun and
Earth. The ICME flank was responsible for a long storm growth phase. This type
of glancing collision was for the first time directly observed with the STEREO
Heliospheric Imagers. The magnetic cloud (MC) inside the ICME cannot be modeled
with approaches assuming an invariant direction. These observations confirm the
hypotheses that parts of ICMEs classified as (1) long-duration MCs or (2)
magnetic-cloud-like (MCL) structures can be a consequence of a spacecraft
trajectory through the ICME flank.
