Earth's bow shock and magnetopause in the case of a field-aligned upstream flow: Observation and model comparison

Details Earth's bow shock and magnetopause in the case of a field-aligned upstream flow: Observation and model comparison Earth's bow shock and magnetopause in the case of a field-aligned upstream flow: Observation and model comparison

Jul 2003

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2003jgra..108.1269m&link_type=abstract

Journal of Geophysical Research Space Physics, Volume 108, Issue A7, pp. SMP 2-1, CiteID 1269, DOI 10.1029/2002JA009697

Physics

5

Interplanetary Physics: Planetary Bow Shocks, Magnetospheric Physics: Magnetosheath, Magnetospheric Physics: Magnetopause, Cusp, And Boundary Layers, Magnetospheric Physics: Solar Wind/Magnetosphere Interactions

Scientific paper

On 5 May 1996 the Interball-1 and IMP 8 spacecraft crossed the bow shock boundary. The upstream conditions were special in two factors: (1) the interplanetary magnetic field was anti-parallel to the solar wind flow within 15° and (2) the conditions were stable for a prolonged period (~9 hours). At the nose of the magnetosphere, the Interball-1 data revealed that the magnetopause was farther outward by ~2 R E than model predictions and the subsolar magnetosheath was unusually thin, at most 10% of the magnetopause standoff distance. Both results stand in contrast to predictions of existing magnetopause/bow shock models. Assuming a hyperboloidal (paraboloidal) shock wave, the calculated shock's standoff distance was 13.7 (13.6) R E , and the focus was located on the x axis at 4.5 (4.2) R E . On the basis of the IMP 8 observation, the bow shock flares significantly less than MHD simulations predict for a field-aligned bow shock at the magnetospheric flanks. This study discusses differences between the observations and existing MHD bow shock simulations for field-aligned upstream flow. Furthermore, it is suggested that the flow-aligned IMF orientation causes a significant change of the magnetopause shape into a bullet-like obstacle.

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