SM13C-2514
CLUSTER CLOSE SEPARATION AT THE BOW SHOCK CAMPAIGN: INITIAL RESULTS.
Monday, 14 December 2015
Poster Hall (Moscone South)
Michael A Balikhin, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, S10, United Kingdom, Roald Sagdeev, University of Maryland College Park, Physics, College Park, MD, United States, Simon N Walker, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, United Kingdom, Ma Malkov, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, United States, Vladimir Krasnoselskikh, University of Orleans, Orleans, France and Yuri V Khotyaintsev, IRF Swedish Institute of Space Physics Uppsala, Uppsala, Sweden
Abstract:
The Cluster close separation at the terrestrial bow shock campaign was aimed at probing the terrestrial bow shock front using multi-scale spacecraft separations. The closest separation (< 10 km) was achieved between Cluster 3 and Cluster 4. The separation of two other spacecraft from this pair was in the range 100-1000 km. The data from this Cluster campaign have been used to study the fine structure of the magnetic ramp. It is shown that the magnetic field perturbations observed within the ramp along the shock normal possess spatial scales a few times shorter than the ramp region itself, and are accompanied by variations in the electric field with magnitudes of a few tens mV/m. Using dual spacecraft measurements enables us to show that in the plane of the shock front the characteristic width of these structures corresponds to electron scales. Comparison of the magnetic field profile obtained from Cluster 3 and 4 indicates possibility that the initial stage of the front reformation is observed. However alternative explanations ( kinetic instabilities, corrugation instability) are also discussed.
