Evidence of the nonstationarity of the terrestrial bow shock from multi-spacecraft observations: methodology, results, and quantitative comparison with particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations

Mazelle, Christian; Lembège, Bertrand

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/angeo-39-571-2021

Articles | Volume 39, issue 4

https://doi.org/10.5194/angeo-39-571-2021

© Author(s) 2021. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/angeo-39-571-2021

© Author(s) 2021. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 39, issue 4

Regular paper

|

02 Jul 2021

Regular paper |

| 02 Jul 2021

Evidence of the nonstationarity of the terrestrial bow shock from multi-spacecraft observations: methodology, results, and quantitative comparison with particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations

Christian Mazelle and Bertrand Lembège

Data sets

Data_s040116_Btz Bertrand Lembège http://lembege.projet.latmos.ipsl.fr/doc3/Data_s040116_Btz/

Model code and software

2D_shock Bertrand Lembège http://lembege.projet.latmos.ipsl.fr/doc3/2D_shock/

Short summary

Nonstationarity of the quasi-perpendicular terrestrial bow shock is analyzed from magnetic field measurements, comparison with 2D particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations, and a careful and accurate methodology in the data processing. The results show evidence of a strong variability of the microstructures of the shock front (foot and ramp), confirming the importance of dissipative effects. These results indicate that these features can be signatures of the shock front self-reformation.