Average observed properties of the Earth's quasi-perpendicular and quasi-parallel bow shock

TL;DR

This study statistically analyzes Earth's bow shock crossings, revealing how plasma and magnetic properties vary with shock angle and plasma-beta, and identifying ion cyclotron and mirror waves in different regimes.

Contribution

It provides a detailed statistical characterization of bow shock properties and wave phenomena based on a large dataset, highlighting the influence of plasma-beta and shock geometry.

Findings

Ion cyclotron waves dominate downstream of low-beta quasi-perpendicular shocks.

Mirror waves are observed downstream of some high-beta nearly perpendicular shocks.

Wave presence correlates with proton temperature anisotropy and plasma conditions.

Abstract

We present a statistical analysis of 132 dayside (LT 0700-1700) bow shock crossings of the AMPTE/IRM spacecraft. We perform a superposed epoch analysis of plasma and magnetic field parameters as well as of low frequency magnetic power spectra some minutes upstream and downstream of the bow shock by dividing the events into categories depending on the angle between bow shock normal and interplanetary magnetic field and on the plasma-beta, i.e., the ratio of plasma to magnetic pressure. Downstream of the quasi-perpendicular low-beta (beta < 0.5) bow shock we find a dominance of the left-hand polarized component at frequencies just below the ion cyclotron frequency with amplitudes of about 3 nT. These waves are identified as ion cyclotron waves which grow in a low-beta regime due to the proton temperature anisotropy. We find a strong correlation of this anisotropy with the intensity of the left-hand polarized component. Downstream of some nearly perpendicular high-beta (beta > 1.0) crossings mirror waves are identified. However, there are also cases where the conditions for mirror modes are met downstream of the nearly perpendicular shock, but no mirror waves are observed.