Abstract
The interaction of the solar wind oblique shock wave with the bow shock front ahead of the earth's magnetosphere is considered in an ideal MHD approximation. It is shown that as the impinging shock wave propagates along the bow front, the pattern of the emerging flow is qualitatively and quantitatively modified, being asymmetrical on the flanks. The effect of the interplanetary magnetic field orientation and the obliqueness of the arriving solar wind shock wave on this process is studied. It is shown that sharp nonlinear restructurings may occur, with neighboring, oppositely poled current layers emerging somewhere on the flanks. Alfvén discontinuities and slow waves play a significant part in this process. The emerging current layers may account for the fact that only some solar wind shock waves are geoeffective.
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Based on material for a lecture given at Seventh All-Union Congress on Theoretical and Applied Mechanics, Moscow, August 1991. Submitted by A. B. Vatazhin.
Translated from Izvestiya Rossiiskoi Akademii Nauk, Mekhanika Zhidkosti i Gaza, No.4, pp. 140–155, July–August, 1992.
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Barmin, A.A., Pushkar', E.A. Magnetohydrodynamic description of the process of collision of a solar wind shock perturbation with the bow shock. Fluid Dyn 27, 560–572 (1992). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01051335
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01051335