Plasma wave profiles of Earth's bow shock at low Mach number: ISEE 3 observations on the far flank

Journal Article · Wed Jul 01 04:00:00 EDT 1992 · Journal of Geophysical Research; (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1029/91JA03049· OSTI ID:7262095

Greenstadt, E W; Coroniti, F V; Moses, S L ^[1]; Smith, E J ^[2]

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1. TRW, Redondo Beach, CA (United States)
2. California Inst. of Tech., Pasadena, CA (United States)

The Earth's bow shock is weak along its distant flanks where the projected component of solar wind velocity normal to the hyperboloidal surface is only a fraction of the total free stream velocity, severely reducing the local Mach number. The authors present a survey of selected crossings far downstream from the subsolar shock, delineating the overall plasma wave (pw) behavior of a selected set of nearly perpendicular crossings and another set of limited Mach number but broad geometry; they include their immediate upstream regions. The result is a generalizable pw signature, or signatures, of low Mach number shocks and some likely implications of those signatures for the weak shock's plasma physical processes on the flank. They find the data consistent with the presence of ion beam interactions producing noise ahead of the shock in the ion acoustic frequency range. One subcritical case was found whose pw noise was presumably related to a reflected ion population just as in stronger events. The presence or absence, and the amplitudes, of pw activity are explainable by the presence or absence of a population of upstream ions controlled by the component of interplanetary magnetic field normal to the solar wind flow.

• OSTI ID: 7262095
• Journal Information: Journal of Geophysical Research; (United States), Journal Name: Journal of Geophysical Research; (United States) Vol. 97:A7; ISSN 0148-0227; ISSN JGREA
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

661320* -- Auroral
Ionospheric
& Magnetospheric Phenomena-- (1992-)
71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
BEAMS
COLLISIONLESS PLASMA
EARTH ATMOSPHERE
EARTH MAGNETOSPHERE
INTERACTIONS
ION BEAMS
ION WAVES
MACH NUMBER
PLASMA
PLASMA WAVES
SHOCK WAVES
SOLAR ACTIVITY
SOLAR WIND
VELOCITY