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Observations of a slow‐mode shock at the lobe‐plasma sheet boundary in Earth's distant magnetotail
Author(s) -
Seon J.,
Frank L. A.,
Paterson W. R.,
Scudder J. D.,
Coroniti F. V.,
Kokubun S.,
Yamamoto T.
Publication year - 1995
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 - 10.1029/95gl02667
Subject(s) - plasma sheet , physics , shock (circulatory) , plasma , boundary (topology) , computational physics , geophysics , mechanics , bow shock (aerodynamics) , magnetic field , magnetosphere , shock wave , nuclear physics , medicine , mathematics , quantum mechanics , mathematical analysis
A lobe‐plasma sheet boundary observed within Earth's distant magnetotail (X GSM ≃ −135 R E ) with the Geotail spacecraft is interpreted in terms of a slow‐mode shock. Measurements of the three‐dimensional velocity distributions of protons and electrons and of the magnetic fields allow a quantitative comparison with theoretical predictions for a steady‐state, one‐dimensional shock. The observed plasma moments and magnetic field upstream from the shock are successfully used to predict these parameters in the downstream region. The measured parameters for this example of a lobe‐plasma sheet boundary are in sufficient agreement with the theoretical predictions to provide considerable confidence that this boundary is a slow‐mode shock.