Analytical Description of the Near Planetary Bow Shock Based on Gas-Dynamic and Magneto-Gas–Dynamic Modeling for the Magnetic Field Parallel and Perpendicular to the Plasma Flow

Abstract

An analytical semiempirical model of the bow shock based on theoretical MGD calculations, accurate analytical solutions, and experimental data continues to be developed. The model parameters have a clear physical meaning. For cases in which the magnetic field of the solar wind is directed along its velocity or is perpendicular to the velocity vector, analytical expressions that allow calculating the parameters of the bow shock—the distance to the subsolar point, the radius of the curvature, and the bluntness at the subsolar point—are obtained via renormalization of the previously developed detailed gas-dynamic model. For the case in which the magnetic field vector is perpendicular to the solar wind velocity vector, it is shown that it is sufficient for an analytical description of the bow shock surface to approximate its parameters in two perpendicular planes.