Multi-Spacecraft Investigation of Terrestrial Bow Shock: Cluster Observations

Abstract:

Due to the interaction of the solar wind with the Earth's magnetosphere, a permanent collisionless bow shock (BS) is formed in front of the nose of the magnetopause. We investigate a large number of BS crossings observed by the Cluster spacecraft between years 2001 and 2015. The FGM instruments provide us with magnetic field measurements sampled at 22 Hz, which is sufficient for a precise identification of BS crossings. We compare observed BS locations with distances predicted by gas dynamical models based on upstream plasma parameters in the solar wind. We achieve a very good agreement in a case of a paraboloid with the Earth fixed in a focus point. We use a simple timing method for the estimation of a BS normal and velocity along this normal. We found that the deviations of calculated BS normals from the paraboloid shape are within 20 degrees. We compare calculated BS velocities with several upstream parameters. We also investigate BS ramp thickness which is comparable to the Larmor radius in the case of quasi-perpendicular BS crossings.