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Nonstationary Quasiperpendicular Shock and Ion Reflection at Mars
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

Nonstationary Quasiperpendicular Shock and Ion Reflection at Mars

Hadi Madanian, Steven J. Schwartz, Jasper S Halekas and Lynn Bruce Wilson III
Geophysical research letters, Vol.47(11), e2020GL088309
06/16/2020
DOI: 10.1029/2020GL088309
url
https://doi.org/10.1029/2020GL088309View
Published (Version of record) Open Access

Abstract

Collisionless shocks in space plasma are regions of heating and acceleration of charged particles and dissipation of kinetic energy. These accelerated particles are the source of electromagnetic emissions from supernova remnants and other astrophysical structures.At high Mach numbers, shocks can be inherently nonstationary and exhibit modulated energy transfer and recurring plasma compression areas in the form of reformation. We use data from the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) spacecraft to study reformation of the Martian bow shock which has a relatively high curvature compared to that at Earth and the upstream solar wind is often mass loaded with a population of pickup ions. We show evidence of ion reflection effects in reformation of a supercritical quasi-perpendicular shock.
Geosciences (General)

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