Validation of single spacecraft based methodologies for the identification of spatial scales of collisionless shocks

Abstract:

One of the problems of observational studies of planetary bow shocks, which are based on planetary missions, is to distinguish between the spatial and temporal variations from single satellite measurements. The spatial scales of a collisionless shock is a very important parameter that needs to be identified. In the pre ISEE period, analytically calculated solutions have been used, in order to find an estimate of the shock-spacecraft velocity and as an extent identify other spatial scales of the shock front. These analytical solutions mainly used shock regions, such as the foot or the overshoot. In this study we exploit multi-point Cluster observations of the terrestrial bow shock, in order to identify the reliability and accuracy of various pre ISEE methodologies, that where developed for single spacecraft measurements. Finally we apply the results that we obtained on Venus Express observations, to identify the Venusian bow shock scales.