Rippled Quasiperpendicular Shock Observed by the Magnetospheric Multiscale Spacecraft

Collisionless shock nonstationarity arising from microscale physics influences shock structure and particle acceleration mechanisms. Nonstationarity has been difficult to quantify due to the small spatial and temporal scales. We use the closely spaced (subgyroscale), high-time-resolution measurement...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Physical review letters 2016-10, Vol.117 (16), p.165101-165101, Article 165101
Main Authors: Johlander, A, Schwartz, S J, Vaivads, A, Khotyaintsev, Yu V, Gingell, I, Peng, I B, Markidis, S, Lindqvist, P-A, Ergun, R E, Marklund, G T, Plaschke, F, Magnes, W, Strangeway, R J, Russell, C T, Wei, H, Torbert, R B, Paterson, W R, Gershman, D J, Dorelli, J C, Avanov, L A, Lavraud, B, Saito, Y, Giles, B L, Pollock, C J, Burch, J L
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Earth magnetosphere
Magnetospheres
Particle acceleration
Ripples
Sciences of the Universe
Spacecraft
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Summary:Collisionless shock nonstationarity arising from microscale physics influences shock structure and particle acceleration mechanisms. Nonstationarity has been difficult to quantify due to the small spatial and temporal scales. We use the closely spaced (subgyroscale), high-time-resolution measurements from one rapid crossing of Earth's quasiperpendicular bow shock by the Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) spacecraft to compare competing nonstationarity processes. Using MMS's high-cadence kinetic plasma measurements, we show that the shock exhibits nonstationarity in the form of ripples.
ISSN:0031-9007
1079-7114
1079-7114
DOI:10.1103/physrevlett.117.165101