Ram pressure stripping in a changing environment

Most cluster galaxies experience large variations in ram pressure which directly influences their gas content. Numerical calculations for the extreme case of an elliptical galaxy on a radial orbit through the intracluster medium are presented. A significant fraction of the accumulated interstellar medium can be pushed out as a single blob on each passage through the cluster. General conditions for ram pressure stripping are derived and discussed. Our results are applied to the cluster A1367.