Modeling the interaction of interplanetary shocks with the Earth's magnetosphere: The first three steps

Details Modeling the interaction of interplanetary shocks with the Earth's magnetosphere: The first three steps Modeling the interaction of interplanetary shocks with the Earth's magnetosphere: The first three steps

Dec 2006

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2006agufmsm33d..02s&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2006, abstract #SM33D-02

Physics

2139 Interplanetary Shocks, 2154 Planetary Bow Shocks, 2728 Magnetosheath, 2753 Numerical Modeling, 2784 Solar Wind/Magnetosphere Interactions

Scientific paper

We consider the initial three steps that occur when an interplanetary (IP) shock interacts with the Earth's magnetosphere: the interaction of the IP shock with the bow shock, the propagation of the IP shock through the magnetosheath, and finally its interaction with the magnetopause. We use a numerical 3-D MHD model which simulates the interaction of a supersonic solar wind with a paraboloidal obstacle. According to already published theoretical studies, a fast forward shock passing through the bow shock should generate a sequence of new discontinuities including a slow expansion wave, a contact discontinuity, and a slow reversed shock. We have found that these particular discontinuities propagate with similar velocities. Because they cannot be distinguished in our calculations, we observe one discontinuity that combines all their properties. We suggest that the same would be true for an analysis of experimental data. Several observed IP shocks in the magnetosheath have been reproduced by the above-mentioned local magnetosheath model and by the global 3-D MHD BATS-R-US model. We have simulated the response of the magnetopause to the IP shock in three separate ways. A comparison of these runs reveals that the magnetopause reaction defines the mode of reflected waves. If the magnetopause moves rapidly Earthward at ~240 km/s or more, a fast rarefaction wave should propagate from the magnetopause towards the bow shock. The magnetopause moves more slowly Earthward, a fast reversed shock results. Estimations obtained from the Rankine-Hugoniot relations confirm the existence of a reflected rarefaction wave. The speed at which the IP shock propagates does not depend on the magnetopause response. We find that both modeled and observed IP shocks decelerate in the magnetosheath during their motion from the subsolar region to the magnetosheath flanks.

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