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Ion acoustic wave forms generated by ion‐ion streams at the Earth's bow shock
Author(s) -
Formisano V.,
Torbert R.
Publication year - 1982
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/gl009i003p00207
Subject(s) - bow wave , physics , bow shock (aerodynamics) , ion , shock wave , instability , amplitude , electric field , shock (circulatory) , dissipation , ion acoustic wave , waveform , computational physics , geophysics , atomic physics , solar wind , mechanics , optics , plasma , nuclear physics , voltage , medicine , quantum mechanics , thermodynamics
The electric field experiment on board ISEE‐1 had a special mode of operation in which bursts of very high time resolution measurements were stored and slowly read‐out. This mode of operation allows us to study in detail the waveforms of the large amplitude electrostatic waves observed at the Earth's bow shock in a frequency range (10‐500 Hz) not well covered previously. These waves appear to be correlated with two streams in the ion angular distribution. Our observations indicate, therefore, that the ion‐ion stream instability is the dissipation mechanism of a collisionless fast quasi‐perpendicular shock wave.