Planetary bow shocks

Abstract

Planetary bow shocks provide insight into both the behavior of collisionless shocks and the nature of the planetary obstacle responsible for creating those bow shocks. This review paper first presents a survey of the microstructure of planetary bow shocks using data obtained at Mercury, Venus, the earth, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. When it examines the correspondence of the behavior of the shock jumps with that predicted by theory, and the differences between gas dynamic and magnetohydrodynamic solutions. Finally, it examines the information available from observations of the location of the bow shock about the nature of the solar wind-planetary interaction.