Articles | Volume 44, issue 1
https://doi.org/10.5194/angeo-44-137-2026
https://doi.org/10.5194/angeo-44-137-2026
Regular paper
 | 
25 Feb 2026
Regular paper |  | 25 Feb 2026

Earth's magnetosheath: a comparison of plasma flow direction between models and observations

Marek Vandas and Evgeny Romashets

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Cited articles

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Formisano, V.: Orientation and shape of the Earth's bow shock in three dimensions, Planet. Space Sci., 27, 1151–1161, 1979. a
Formisano, V., Domingo, V., and Wenzel, K.-P.: The three-dimensional shape of the magnetopause, Planet. Space Sci., 27, 1137–1149, 1979. a
Génot, V., Budnik, E., Hellinger, P., Passot, T., Belmont, G., Trávníček, P. M., Sulem, P.-L., Lucek, E., and Dandouras, I.: Mirror structures above and below the linear instability threshold: Cluster observations, fluid model and hybrid simulations, Ann. Geophys., 27, 601–615, https://doi.org/10.5194/angeo-27-601-2009, 2009. a, b
Génot, V., Broussillou, L., Budnik, E., Hellinger, P., Trávníček, P. M., Lucek, E., and Dandouras, I.: Timing mirror structures observed by Cluster with a magnetosheath flow model, Ann. Geophys., 29, 1849–1860, https://doi.org/10.5194/angeo-29-1849-2011, 2011. a, b
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Short summary
Observations of the plasma flow direction in the Earth’s magnetosheath are compared with the help of three analytical magnetic-fieldmodels, namely Kobel and Flückiger (1994), Romashets and Vandas (2019), and Vandas and Romashets (2019), which all assume current-free fields in the magnetosheath. 47 magnetosheath passages by spacecraft are analyzed in detail and performance of the models are evaluated. It is concluded that the performances are comparable.
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