Collision of an interplanetary shock wave with the Earth’s bow shock. Hydrodynamic parameters and magnetic field

Abstract

Hydrodynamic parameters and magnetic field generated in each of the waves in neighborhood of the Earth’s bow shock when an interplanetary shock wave impinges on it and propagates along its surface are found in the three-dimensional non-plane-polarized formulation within the framework of the ideal magnetohydrodynamic model. The interaction pattern is constructed in the quasi-steady-state formulation as a mosaic of exact solutions, obtained by means of a computer, to the Riemann problem of breakdown of a discontinuity between the states downstream of the impinging wave and the bow shock on the traveling line of intersection of their fronts. The calculations are carried out for typical parameters of the quiescent solar wind and the interplanetary magnetic field in the Earth’s orbit when the plane front of a shock wave moves along the Sun-Earth radius with various given velocities. The solutions obtained can be used to interpret measurements carried out by spacecraft in the solar wind and in neighborhood of the Earth’s magnetosphere.