MHD simulation of the distribution of the gasdynamic parameters and magnetic field behind the Earth’s bow shock under sharp variations in the solar wind dynamic pressure

Abstract

The distributions of the gasdynamic parameters (density, pressure, and velocity) and the magnetic field behind the Earth’s bow shock (on the outer boundary of the magnetosheath) generated under sharp variations in the solar wind dynamic pressure are found in the three-dimensional non-planepolarized formulation with allowance for the interplanetary magnetic field within the framework of the ideal magnetohydrodynamic model using the solution to the MHD Riemann problem of breakdown of an arbitrary discontinuity. Such a discontinuity which depends on the inclination of an element of the bow shock surface arises when a contact discontinuity traveling together with the solar wind and on which the solar wind density and, consequently, the dynamic pressure, increases or decreases suddenly impinges on the Earth’s bow shock and propagates along its surface initiating the development of to six waves or discontinuities (shocks). The general interaction pattern is constructed for the entire bow shock surface as a mosaic of exact solutions to the MHD Riemann problem obtained on computer using an original software (MHD Riemann solver) so that the flow pattern is a function of the angular surface coordinates (latitude and longitude). The calculations are carried out for various jumps in 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 there exist horseshoe zones on the bow shock in which the increase in the density and the magnetic field strength in the fast shock waves or their reduced decrease in the fast rarefaction waves penetrating into the magnetosheath and arising as a result of sharp variation in the solar wind dynamic pressure is superposed on significant drop in the density and growth in the magnetic field strength in slow rarefaction waves. The distributions of the hydrodynamic parameters and the magnetic field can be used to interpret measurements carried out on spacecraft in the solar wind at the libration point and orbiters in the neighborhood of the Earth’s magnetosphere.