Bow shock associated waves observed in the far upstream interplanetary medium

Fifty orbits of Explorer 34 data have been used to study 0.01–0.05 Hz transverse waves in the interplanetary medium region between the bow shock and the spacecraft apogee of 34 R E . It is concluded that the waves are associated with the earth's bow shock since they only occur when projection of the interplanetary field observed at the spacecraft intersects the shock. The waves are observed 18.5% of the time when a total of 134 days of interplanetary data is considered, but more than 90% of the time when the field has the proper orientation with respect to the bow shock. On the basis of this result it is suggested that these waves with 20–100 second periods are a permanent feature of the solar wind‐earth interaction. The transverse component of the waves is typically several gammas in amplitude in 4–8 gamma fields. The disturbance vector in the XY plane generally exhibits the same sense of rotation in a coordinate system where the field is oriented along the positive z axis. Attenuation of wave amplitudes with distance from the bow shock is estimated to be only a factor of 2 when the spacecraft is 15 R E from the bow shock. The absence of waves at particular field orientations, even though the field line intersects the shock, is interpreted as a propagation effect. This observation is the basis for calculations that yield an average velocity in the plasma frame of 2.7 ± 0.4 times the solar wind velocity. Whistler propagation and local generation by two‐stream instability are discussed as alternate theoretical explanations for the presence of the waves. It is suggested that the data favor the latter mechanism.