Unusual wave activity near the interplanetary shocks

Abstract

It has been reported that quasi-parallel (Q(sub parallel)) shocks are generally characterized by hours of upstream ion-acoustic-like wave activity and that quasi-perpendicular (Q(sub perpendicular)) shocks show only minimal upstream wave activity. However, we report Ulysses observations of several exceptions to these trends. These include: (1) quasi-perpendicular shocks with long durations of high-frequency ion-acoustic-like waves and Langmuir waves in the upstream region, and (2) quasi-parallel shocks with minimal wave activity in the upstream. These observations suggest that there may not be any systematic difference in the wave phenomena associated with Q(sub perpendicular) and Q(sub parallel) shocks. The wave activity (.5-5) kHz near the interplanetary shocks poorly correlates with the electron to ion temperature ratio, T(sub e)/T(sub i). We provide arguments in favor of electron acoustic waves instead of ion-acoustic waves.