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Reformation of perpendicular shocks: Hybrid simulations
Author(s) -
Hellinger P.,
Trávnícek P.,
Matsumoto H.
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/2002gl015915
Subject(s) - mach number , shock (circulatory) , overshoot (microwave communication) , perpendicular , physics , mechanics , computational physics , proton , front (military) , pulse (music) , optics , nuclear physics , meteorology , geometry , computer science , medicine , telecommunications , mathematics , detector
We show that in one‐dimensional hybrid simulations supercritical perpendicular shocks have a well‐defined, slightly oscillating structure (including foot, ramp, overshoot, and undershoot) for hot upstream protons and low Mach numbers. In this case the reflected protons are able to stop the shock steepening at proton scales. However, for colder upstream protons and/or higher Mach numbers simulated shocks show a nonstationary feature, namely a periodic reappearance of a new shock front. These nonstationary shocks simulated by one‐dimensional hybrid code have shock front gradient scales that are governed only by the spatial resolution used in the code. Consequently, we conclude that the one‐dimensional hybrid code is not suitable for description of perpendicular nonstationary shocks.