ARTEMIS Observations of Plasma Waves in Laminar and Perturbed Interplanetary Shocks

TL;DR

This study uses ARTEMIS spacecraft data to analyze plasma wave properties in interplanetary shocks, revealing differences in wave activity and energy dissipation between laminar and perturbed shocks.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed comparison of plasma wave characteristics in laminar versus perturbed interplanetary shocks using ARTEMIS data.

Findings

Laminar shocks show higher wave activity in the transition region.

Perturbed shocks exhibit fewer large amplitude waves in the ramp.

Energy dissipation via wave-particle interactions is greater in laminar shocks.

Abstract

The 'Acceleration, Reconnection, Turbulence and Electrodynamics of the Moon's Interaction with the Sun' (ARTEMIS) mission provides a unique opportunity to study the structure of interplanetary shocks and the associated generation of plasma waves with frequencies between ~50-8000 Hz due to its long duration electric and magnetic field burst waveform captures. We compare wave properties and occurrence rates at 11 quasi-perpendicular interplanetary shocks with burst data within 10 minutes (~3200 proton gyroradii upstream, ~1900 downstream) of the shock ramp. A perturbed shock is defined as possessing a large amplitude whistler precursor in the quasi-static magnetic field with an amplitude greater than 1/3 the difference between the upstream and downstream average magnetic field magnitudes; laminar shocks lack these large precursors and have a smooth, step function-like transition. In addition to wave modes previously observed, including ion acoustic, whistler, and electrostatic solitary waves, waves in the ion acoustic frequency range that show rapid temporal frequency change are common. The ramp region of the two laminar shocks with burst data in the ramp contained a wide range of large amplitude wave modes whereas the one perturbed shock with ramp burst data contained no such waves. Energy dissipation through wave-particle interactions is more prominent in these laminar shocks than the perturbed shock. The wave occurrence rates for laminar shocks are higher in the transition region, especially the ramp, than downstream. Perturbed shocks have approximately 2-3 times the wave occurrence rate downstream than laminar shocks.