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On the generation of magnetosheath high‒speed jets by bow shock ripples
Author(s) -
Hietala H.,
Plaschke F.
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
journal of geophysical research: space physics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2169-9402
pISSN - 2169-9380
DOI - 10.1002/2013ja019172
Subject(s) - magnetosheath , magnetopause , bow shock (aerodynamics) , physics , solar wind , geophysics , bow wave , shock (circulatory) , mechanics , shock wave , interplanetary magnetic field , magnetic field , medicine , quantum mechanics
The terrestrial magnetosheath is embedded with coherent high‒speed jets of about 1 R E in scale, predominantly during quasi‒radial interplanetary magnetic field (IMF). When these high dynamic pressure ( P dyn ) jets hit the magnetopause, they cause large indentations and further magnetospheric effects. The source of these jets has remained controversial. One of the proposed mechanisms is based on ripples of the quasi‒parallel bow shock. In this paper, we combine for the first time, 4 years of subsolar magnetosheath observations from the Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions during Substorms mission and corresponding NASA/OMNI solar wind conditions with model calculations of a rippled bow shock. Concentrating on the magnetosheath close to the shock during intervals when the angle between the IMF and the Sun‒Earth line was small, we find that (1) 97% of the observed jets can be produced by local ripples of the shock under the observed upstream conditions; (2) the coherent jets form a significant fraction of the high P dyn tail of the magnetosheath flow distribution; (3) the magnetosheath P dyn distribution matches the flow from a bow shock with ripples that have a dominant amplitude to wavelength ratio of about 9% (∼0.1 R E /1 R E ) and are present ∼12 % of the time at any given location.