Recent Advances in Hot Flow Anomaly Studies

Abstract:

Hot flow anomalies (HFAs) are events observed near planetary bow shocks that are characterized by greatly heated solar wind plasmas and substantial flow deflection. HFAs are universal phenomena that have been observed near the bow shock of Earth, Venus, Mars, and Saturn. HFAs are not stable structures and they evolve with time. Statistical study shows that both ion and electron spectra can be used to classify young and mature HFAs. HFAs were also classified into four categories (“-+”, “+-”, “M”, and “W”) according their dynamic pressure profile. Most “W” type HFAs are mature HFAs (according to ion spectra) and most “-+” and “+-” type HFAs are young HFAs. Half of the “M” type HFAs are mature HFAs. Superposed epoch analysis result shows that variations of plasma parameters and magnetic field of mature HFAs are more dramatic than those of young HFAs, except for temperature. “M" and “W" type HFAs may be the later evolution stages of “-+" and “+-" type HFAs; on the other hand, four categories of HFAs may be due to the fact that the spacecraft crossed an HFA structure along different paths.