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Nonstationary Quasiperpendicular Shock and Ion Reflection at Mars
Author(s) -
Madanian Hadi,
Schwartz Steven J.,
Halekas Jasper S.,
Wilson Lynn B.
Publication year - 2020
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 - 10.1029/2020gl088309
Subject(s) - mars exploration program , physics , atmosphere of mars , shock (circulatory) , shock waves in astrophysics , martian , mach number , plasma , kinetic energy , solar wind , reflection (computer programming) , shock wave , bow shock (aerodynamics) , population , spacecraft , astrobiology , dissipation , computational physics , mechanics , astronomy , classical mechanics , nuclear physics , medicine , demography , sociology , computer science , programming language , thermodynamics
Collisionless shocks in space plasma are regions of heating and acceleration of charged particles and dissipation of kinetic energy. These accelerated particles are the source of electromagnetic emissions from supernova remnants and other astrophysical structures. At high Mach numbers, shocks can be inherently nonstationary and exhibit modulated energy transfer and recurring plasma compression areas in the form of reformation. We use data from the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) spacecraft to study reformation of the Martian bow shock, which has a relatively high curvature compared to that at Earth, and the upstream solar wind is often mass loaded with a population of pickup ions. We show evidence of ion reflection effects in reformation of a supercritical quasiperpendicular shock.