Cluster observations of fast shocks in the magnetosheath launched as a tangential discontinuity with a pressure increase crossed the bow shock

N C Maynard (1) , C.J J Farrugia (1) , D.M. Ober , W.J. Burke , M. Dunlop , F.S. Mozer (2) , H. Reme (3) , Pierrette Décréau (4) , K.D. Siebert

1 UNH - University of New Hampshire
2 UC Berkeley - University of California [Berkeley]
3 CESR - Centre d'étude spatiale des rayonnements
4 LPC2E - Laboratoire de Physique et Chimie de l'Environnement et de l'Espace

The interaction of a tangential discontinuity (TD) and accompanying dynamic pressure increase with the Earth's bow shock launches a fast shock that travels ahead of the TD in the magnetosheath and carries a significant portion of the pressure change. In this event study, we use observations from the Cluster spacecraft and magnetohydrodynamic simulations to identify the fast shock and its properties and to track the TD in the magnetosheath. Velocities of the fast shock and the TD were determined by triangulation using the four distant Cluster spacecraft. The fast shock is a planar structure, traveling nearly perpendicular to B at the magnetosonic speed in the plasma rest frame. Changes in density and vertical bar B vertical bar are correlated, with about a 20% increase in each. A current was observed tangential to the plane of the fast shock, and the positive E.J there provided an electromagnetic energy source for the observed heating of the ions. The fast shock is generated by the pressure change and determines the timing of the initial response of the magnetopause to that change. The TD was moving nearly in the -X-GSE direction and was being compressed as it moved inward. The passage of the TD ushered in large- scale compressive structure in the magnetosheath magnetic field, which satisfied the mirror mode instability criterion. Velocities of a fast rarefaction wave, reflected from the magnetopause, and an additional slow- mode structure, which was not a product of the initial interaction with the bow shock, were determined by triangulation.

Domaines: Géophysique [physics.geo-ph]; Physique de l'espace [physics.space-ph]

N C Maynard, C.J J Farrugia, D.M. Ober, W.J. Burke, M. Dunlop, et al.. Cluster observations of fast shocks in the magnetosheath launched as a tangential discontinuity with a pressure increase crossed the bow shock. Journal of Geophysical Research Space Physics, 2008, 113 (A10), pp.A10212. ⟨10.1029/2008JA013121⟩. ⟨insu-02871374⟩