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Contributions to the cross shock electric field at a quasiperpendicular collisionless shock
Author(s) -
Eastwood J. P.,
Bale S. D.,
Mozer F. S.,
Hull A. J.
Publication year - 2007
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 - 10.1029/2007gl030610
Subject(s) - electric field , physics , bow shock (aerodynamics) , shock (circulatory) , solar wind , computational physics , plasma , amplitude , field (mathematics) , magnetic field , shock wave , atomic physics , mechanics , optics , quantum mechanics , medicine , mathematics , pure mathematics
The normal electric field structure of a supercritical ( M ms = 5.2), quasiperpendicular (θ Bn = 70°) collisionless shock is examined using Cluster four‐spacecraft observations of the terrestrial bow shock. Comparing the observed electric field with magnetic field and plasma observations, two different techniques find that the J × B / ne term in the generalized Ohm's law accounts for a majority of the large‐scale normal electric field and potential drop encountered by the ions ‐ the solar wind ion deceleration is in good empirical agreement with the observed potential drop, confirming earlier work. Large amplitude electric field fluctuations on shorter timescales, corresponding to fine scale structure, are not observed to contribute to the ion energization.