Low-frequency waves upstream and downstream of the terrestrial bow shock

Abstract

This thesis is organized in the following fashion. Chapter 2 introduces the concept of a collisionless shock. Foundations of the shock, theories, and observations about the upstream and the downstream waves are reviewed. Chapter 3 describes an outline of the Cluster mission and instrumentation for the magnetic field and the plasma measurements.

Statistical survey of day-side magnetospheric current flow using Cluster observations: bow shock

“…In this range we find that the dependence on the IMF magnitude seems to be qualitatively equal to that observed for quasi-perpendicular situations. In particular the current magnitudes of the quasi-perpendicular and quasi-parallel bow shocks are of a similar size for a given IMF, which is an interesting finding as the ideally (in reality never realized) parallel shock would be accompanied by no jump in the magnetic field and therefore no current at all (Narita, 2006).…”

Statistical survey of day-side magnetospheric current flow using Cluster observations: Bow shock

“…In this range we find that the dependence on the IMF magnitude seems to be qualitatively equal to that observed for quasi-perpendicular situations. In particular the current magnitudes of the quasi-perpendicular and the quasi-parallel bow shock are of similar size for a given IMF which is an interesting finding as the ideally (in reality never realized) parallel-shock 15 would be accompanied by no jump in the magnetic field and therefore no current at all (Narita, 2006).…”

Response to Referee #2

“…For our investigation we use Cluster magnetic field data from the fluxgate magnetometer (FGM) (Balogh et al, 2001) at spin resolution (0.25 Hz). Additionally, data from the Cluster Ion Spectrometry (CIS) instrument (Rème et al, 1997) are used to support the identification of bow shock cross-ings. The data are retrieved from the Cluster Active Archive (Laakso et al, 2010).…”