Impact of the interplanetary magnetic field on thewave flow pattern in the neighborhood of the Earth’s bow shock under sharp variations in the solar wind dynamic pressure

Abstract

The impact of the interplanetary magnetic field on transformation and disintegration of the Earth’s bow shock into a system of magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) shock waves, rotational discontinuities and rarefaction waves under the action of abrupt variations in the solar wind dynamic pressure is simulated in the three-dimensional non-plane-polarized formulation within the framework of the ideal magnetohydrodynamic model using the solution of the MHD Riemann problem of breakdown of an arbitrary discontinuity. This discontinuity arises when a contact discontinuity, on which the solar wind density increases or decreases suddenly and which travels together with the solar wind, impinges on the Earth’s bow shock and propagates along its surface. The interaction pattern is constructed in the quasisteady- state formulation as a mosaic of exact solutions obtained on computer using an original MHD Riemann solver. The wave flow patterns are found for all elements of the surface of the bow shock as functions of their latitude and longitude for various jumps in the density on the contact discontinuity and characteristics parameters of the solar wind and interplanetary magnetic field at the Earth’s orbit. It is found that when the solar wind dynamic pressure increases, a fast MHD shock wave, that first penetrates into the magnetosheath, is always formed. When the solar wind dynamic pressure decreases, the influence of the interplanetary magnetic field can lead to the development of the leading fast MHD shock wave in certain zones on the surface of the Earth’s bow shock. The solution obtained can be used to interpret measurements on spacecraft in the solar wind at the libration point and in the neighborhood of the Earth’s magnetosphere.