SH047-02
The Dynamics of High Mach Number Quasi-Perpendicular Shocks

Tuesday, 15 December 2020: 16:07
Virtual
Hadi Madanian1, Mihir Indrajit Desai1, James Burch1, Stephen A Fuselier1, Lynn B Wilson III2, Olivier Le Contel3, Steven Schwartz4, Drew L Turner5, Nick Omidi6, Keiichi Ogasawara1, Robert Ergun4, Narges Ahmadi4, C. T. Russell7, Daniel J Gershman2 and Per-Arne Lindqvist8, (1)Southwest Research Institute, San Antonio, TX, United States, (2)NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, United States, (3)Laboratoire de Physique des Plasmas (UMR7648), CNRS/Ecole Polytechnique/UPMC/Univ. Paris Sud/Obs. de Paris, Paris, France, (4)Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, Boulder, CO, United States, (5)Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, MD, United States, (6)Solana Scientific Inc, Solana Beach, CA, United States, (7)UCLA, Los Angeles, CA, United States, (8)KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden
Recorded Presentation
Abstract:
Shock parameters at Earth's bow shock, in rare instances, can approach the Mach numbers predicted at supernova remnants. We present our analysis of high Alfvén Mach number (MA > 25) shocks, by utilizing multipoint measurements from the Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) spacecraft during crossings of Earth's quasi-perpendicular bow shock. The nonstationary bow shock shows signatures of both reformation and surface ripples. Our observations indicate that although shock reformation occurs, the main shock layer never disappears. We also find that the shock dynamics are mostly driven by reflected ions, perturbations that they generate, and nonlinear amplification of the perturbations. Shock reformation occurs at high plasma β, a parameter regime which has not been well explored by numerical models.
<< Previous Abstract | Next Abstract >>