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Low-frequency whistler waves and shocklets observed at quasi-perpendicular interplanetary shocks
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland, USA
Physics Department, University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada
We present observations of low-frequency waves (0.25 Hz < f < 10 Hz) at five quasi-perpendicular interplanetary (IP) shocks observed by the Wind spacecraft. Four of the five IP shocks had oblique precursor whistler waves propagating at angles with respect to the magnetic field of 20°–50° and large propagation angles with respect to the shock normal; thus they do not appear to be phase standing. One event, the strongest in our study and likely supercritical, had low-frequency waves consistent with steepened magnetosonic waves called shocklets. The shocklets are seen in association with diffuse ion distributions. Both the shocklets and precursor whistlers are often seen simultaneously with anisotropic electron distributions unstable to the whistler heat flux instability. The IP shock with upstream shocklets showed much stronger electron heating across the shock ramp than the four events without upstream shocklets. These results may offer new insights into collisionless shock dissipation and wave-particle interactions in the solar wind.
Received 21 April 2009; accepted 2 July 2009; published 17 October 2009.
Citation: (2009), Low-frequency whistler waves and shocklets observed at quasi-perpendicular interplanetary shocks, J. Geophys. Res., 114, A10106, doi:10.1029/2009JA014376.
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