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NASA NTRS2010

Don't go with the Flow: An Invitation to Magnetosheath and Foreshock Studies

This talk reviews the predictions of gasdynamic, magnetohydrodynamic, and kinetic models for the magnetosheath and foreshock and compares these predictions with observations by the recent Cluster and THEMIS missions. Topics of interest include: the depletion layer, dawn/dusk asymmetries, the transmission of solar wind discontinuities, the formation of hot flow anomalies and cavities in the foreshock, and flows accelerated by field-line tension. We conclude by discussing opportunities for magnetosheath imaging.

Sibeck, D. G.↗

NASA NTRS2020

Microscopic, Multipoint Characterization of Foreshock Bubbles With Magnetosphere Multiscale (MMS)

This work presents the first detailed analysis of foreshock bubbles (FBs) using high‐resolution Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) data. Between October 2017 and January 2019, MMS captured 10 foreshock transient events with burst resolution data that we show are consistent with FBs. One “textbook” event is examined and described in detail. Employing the multipoint nature of MMS, we demonstrate how the size and orientation, expansion speed, and distance since formation can be estimated. From all 10 events, FB sizes ranged from 1.1 to 9.9 RE (average of 4.4 RE), and expansion speeds ranged from 139 to 377 km/s (average of 257 km/s). FBs formed under a usual range of solar wind conditions between 3 and 20 RE upstream of Earth's bow shock. We also report on new features of FBs: deep and localized magnetic “holes” within the cores of FBs, where the total field strength drops to <1 nT.

D. L. Turner↗

NASA NTRS2020

Magnetospheric Multiscale Observations of Earth’s Oblique Bow Shock Reformation by Foreshock Ultra-Low Frequency Waves

Collisionless shocks can be nonstationary with periodic reformation shown in many simulation results, but direct observations are still tenuous and difficult to conclusively interpret. In this study, using Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) observations, we report direct observational evidence of Earth’s oblique bow shock reformation driven by the foreshock ultra-low frequency (ULF)waves. When the four MMS spacecraft were in a string-of-pearls formation roughly along the bow shock normal, they observed that when each period of foreshock ULF waves encountered the bow shock, a new shock ramp formed. Meanwhile, in the magnetosheath, the old bow shock’s remnants were observed periodically convecting downstream. We propose that the reformation mechanism of the oblique bow shock is the variation of the upstream conditions by the periodic ULF waves as they encounter the bow shock. We also examine the nature of reflected ions during the reformation process.

Terry Z Liu↗

NASA NTRS1980

Magnetic field orientation and suprathermal ion streams in the earth's foreshock

It is noted that as a result of the ISEE 1 and 2 missions, it was found that return ions, that is, ions streaming into the solar wind away from the bow shock, are comprised of separate classes having distinguishable energy and directional distributions. In addition, each of these classes of return ions, which are essentially all protons, is associated with its own level of upstream magnetic wave activity. It is shown that each class is also associated with a particular section of the foreshock determined by the IMF and the energies of the particles themselves. A series of schematic figures depicting the IMF-shock geometry for selected instants during the first two hours of ISEE particle data of November 8, 1977, is presented.

Greenstadt, E. W.↗

NASA NTRS1982

A mechanism for plasma waves at the harmonics of the plasma frequency foreshock boundary

A bump-on-tail unstable reduced velocity distribution, constructed from data obtained at the upstream boundary of the electron foreshock by the GSFC electron spectrometer experiment on the ISEE-1 satellite, is used as the initial plasma state for a numerical integration of the 1D-Vlasov-Maxwell system of equations. The integration is carried through the growth of the instability, beyond its saturation, and well into the stabilized plasma regime. A power spectrum computed for the electric field of the stabilized plasma is dominated by a narrow peak at the Bohm-Gross frequency of the unstable field mode but also contains significant power at the harmonics of the Bohm-Gross frequency. The harmonic power is in sharp peaks which are split into closely spaced doublets. The fundamental peak at the Bohm-Gross frequency is split into a closely spaced triplet. The mechanism for excitation of the second harmonic is shown to be second order wave-wave coupling.

Klimas, A. J.↗

NASA NTRS1983

The oblique whistler instability in the earth's foreshock

The linear Vlasov stability properties of electron velocity distributions, similar to those observed in the upstream foreshock region in association with obliquely propagating whistler waves at approximately 1 Hz, are studied. These distributions are modeled by a sum of bi-Maxwellians with drift speeds parallel to the magnetic field B. Such distributions are found to be stable to modes with wavevectors k parallel to B but unstable to whistler waves propagating obliquely to the magnetic field. The frequencies and wavelengths of these unstable modes agree well with those of whistlers observed upstream of the earth's bow shock. The free energy source driving the instability is a region of positive parallel slope at large pitch angles (about 85 deg) and intermediate energies (about 20 eV), probably corresponding to solar wind electrons magnetostatically reflected from the magnetic ramp of the bow shock. The whistlers grow via electromagnetic Landau resonance with this free energy source.

Sentman, D. D.↗

NASA NTRS1983

A source of the backstreaming ion beams in the foreshock region

The proposed source mechanism for the 'reflected' ion beams observed in the bow shock region's foreshock places the origin of the beams in the magnetosheath, downstream of the quasi-perpendicular shock portion whose transition is characterized by the downstream ion populations. Particle simulations indicate that highly anisotropic downstream ion distributions can excite electromagnetic ion cyclotron waves which, in turn, pitch angle-scatter the gyrating ions in a few ion gyroperiods. As a result, some ions acquire large parallel velocities and move fast enough along the convecting downstream magnetic field to escape back across the bow shock into the upstream region. The results presented are in general agreement with ISEE reflected ion observations.

Tanaka, M.↗

NASA NTRS1983

A mechanism for plasma waves at the harmonics of the plasma frequency in the electron foreshock boundary

Klimas, A. J.↗

NASA NTRS1984

Strong electron heat flux modes in Jupiter's foreshock

Analysis of Voyager plasma wave data from the Jovian foreshock has revealed the existence of a new oscillation with center frequency below fp and typically lying above the upper limit Doppler shift frequency for ion acoustic waves. The properties of these waves are consistent with modes generated by a strong electron heat flux in an unmagnetized plasma. Such modes become unstable when the effective drift velocity exceeds n(cold)/(hot) exp 1/2 times the thermal speed of the hot component. The occasional simultaneous appearance of more than one frequency band is a possible indication of multiple magnetic connection with the shock.

Moses, S. L.↗

NASA NTRS1985

Variable field-to-normal angles in the shock foreshock boundary observed by ISEE 1 and 2

Saturated ULF waves in the foreshock, with amplitudes comparable to the magnitude of the average field, are convected by the solar wind to the quasi-parallel shock where the average field-normal angle is less than, or about, 45 deg. Several examples from ISEE 1 and 2 magnetometer data show waves that defined local, instantaneous field-normal angles very different periodically from the average. Local geometric conditions at the nominally quasi-parallel shock varied from nearly parallel to nearly perpendicular, at the periods of typical upstream waves. Clear magnetic shock transitions occurred under temporarily quasi-perpendicular geometry.

Greenstadt, E. W.↗

NASA NTRS1986

The upstream region, foreshock and bow shock wave at Halley's Comet from plasma electron measurements

Halley plasma electron parameters from 2.7 million km from the comet nucleus to the bow shock wave at 1.1 million km and beyond are surveyed. The features of the electron foreshock lying outside the shock to a distance of 230,000 km are described. It is a region of intense solar wind-comet plasma interaction in which energetic electrons are prominent. Several spikes of electrons whose energies extend to 2.5 keV appear in front of the shock. These energetic electrons may be accelerated in the same way electrons are accelerated at the Earth's bow shock to energies of 1 to 10 keV. The direction of the electron bulk flow direction changes abruptly between 1920 and 1922 UT, and the flow speed begins a sharp decline at the same time. It is suggested that the spacecraft entered the bow shock wave between 1920 and 1922 UT. Electron density variations at Halley are very much smaller than those at Giacobini-Zinner.

Anderson, K. A.↗

NASA NTRS1987

A theory for the Langmuir waves in the electron foreshock

A comprehensive theory for the Langmuir waves in the earth's foreshock involving saturation of the kinetic version of the beam instability by quasi-linear relaxation is proposed in this paper. Reactive and kinetic beam instabilities are shown to be the two limiting versions of a single instability whose analytically and numerically derived descriptions are shown to form a consistent picture. It is pointed out that the reactive instability gives rise only to narrow-band growth while the kinetic instability gives rise to wide-band growth. Arguments for describing the Langmuir wave growth in terms of the kinetic instability are given, and four suppression mechanisms for the kinetic instability are discussed. It is suggested that quasi-linear relaxation limits the Langmuir growth and gives rise to distributions qualitatively similar to the observed distribution functions, and arguments in favor of this hypothesis are presented.

Cairns, Iver H.↗

NASA NTRS1987

Observations of large-amplitude MHD waves in Jupiter's foreshock in connection with a quasi-perpendicular shock structure

Plasma and magnetic field observations performed onboard the Voyager 2 spacecraft have been used to investigate Jupiter's foreshock. Large-amplitude waves have been detected in association with the quasi-perpendicular structure of the Jovian bow shock, thus proving that the upstream turbulence is not a characteristic signature of the quasi-parallel shock.

Bavassano-Cattaneo, M. B.↗

NASA NTRS1987

Proton beam generation of whistler waves in the earth's foreshock

It is shown that proton beams, often observed upstream of the earth's bow shock and associated with the generation of low-frequency hydromagnetic fluctuations, are also capable of generating whistler waves. The waves can be excited by an instability driven by two-temperature streaming Maxwellian proton distributions which have T (perpendicular)/T(parallel) much greater than 1. It can also be excited by gyrating proton beam distributions. These distributions generate whistler waves with frequencies ranging from 10 to 100 times the proton cyclotron frequency (in the solar wind reference frame) and provide another mechanism for generating the '1-Hz' waves often seen in the earth's foreshock.

Wong, H. K.↗

NASA NTRS1989

Simulations relevant to the beam instability in the foreshock

The results presently obtained from two-dimensional simulations of the reactive instability for Maxwellian beams and cutoff distributions are noted to be consistent with recent suggestions that electrons backstreaming into earth's foreshock have steep-sided cutoff distributions, which are initially unstable to the reactive instability, and that the back-reaction to the wave growth causes the instability to pass into its kinetic phase. It is demonstrated that the reactive instability is a bunching instability, and that the reactive instability saturates and passes over into the kinetic phase by particle trapping.

Cairns, I. H.↗

NASA NTRS1990

Simulation studies of plasma waves in the electron foreshock - The transition from reactive to kinetic instability

Particle simulation experiments were used to analyze the electron beam-plasma instability. It is shown that there is a transition from the reactive state of the electron beam-plasma instability to the kinetic instability of Langmuir waves. Quantitative tests, which include an evaluation of the dispersion relation for the evolving non-Maxwellian beam distribution, show that a quasi-linear theory describes the onset of this transition and applies again fully to the kinetic stage. This stage is practically identical to the late stage seen in simulations of plasma waves in the electron foreshock described by Dum (1990).

Dum, C. T.↗

NASA NTRS1990

Simulation studies of plasma waves in the electron foreshock - The generation of downshifted oscillations

The generation of waves with frequencies downshifted from the plasma frequency, as observed in the electron foreshock, is analyzed by particle simulation. Wave excitation differs fundamentally from the familiar excitation of the plasma eigenmodes by a gentle bump-on-tail electron distribution. Beam modes are destabilized by resonant interaction with bulk electrons, provided the beam velocity spread is very small. These modes are stabilized, starting with the higher frequencies, as the beam is broadened and slowed down by the interaction with the wave spectrum. Initially a very cold beam is also capable of exciting frequencies considerably above the plasma frequency, but such oscillations are quickly stabilized. Low-frequency modes persist for a long time, until the bump in the electron distribution is completely 'ironed' out. This diffusion process also is quite different from the familiar case of well-separated beam and bulk electrons. A quantitative analysis of these processes is carried out.

Dum, C. T.↗

NASA NTRS1990

A study of the coherence length of ULF waves in the earth's foreshock

High-time-resolution magnetic-field data for different separations of ISEE 1 and 2 in the earth's ion foreshock region are examined to study the coherence length of upstream ULF waves. Examining the correlation coefficients of the low-frequency waves as a function of separation distance shows that the correlation coefficient depends mainly on the separation distance of ISEE 1 and 2 transverse to the solar-wind flow. It drops to about 0.5 when the transverse separation is about 1 earth radius, a distance much larger than the proton thermal gyroradius in the solar wind. Thus the coherence length of the low-frequency waves is about one earth radius, which is of the order of the wavelength, and is consistent with that estimated from the bandwidth of the waves.

Le, G.↗