Upstream waves, shocklets, short large‐amplitude magnetic structures and the cyclic behavior of oblique quasi‐parallel collisionless shocks

Abstract

The re‐formation process of more oblique quasi‐parallel shocks is investigated using one‐dimensional hybrid simulations. Several types of simulations have been performed. The simulation of a shock with a magnetic field‐shock normal angle of 30° shows that a more oblique quasi‐parallel shock exhibits reformation cycles with a larger length scale, that is of about 20 ion inertial lengths. This is considerably larger than the distance specularly reflected ions are able to propagate upstream before they are deflected so that their velocity in the shock normal direction is close to zero. These cycles are due to steepening and growth of upstream waves into pulsationlike structures when they are convected into the region of strongly increasing diffuse ion density immediately upstream of the shock. When the steepening wave packet crashes into the shock, the shock ramp dispersively radiates whistler waves into the region between the shock ramp and the approaching wave, while the steepening of the pulsation leads to phase standing whistler waves on the upstream side. Entropy production occurs either at the shock ramp or at the upstream edge of the pulsation when the steepening process has produced a large kink in the magnetic field and is due to nonadiabatic motion of the incident solar wind ions. In order to analyze the wave steepening, upstream waves have been isolated, and their subsequent interaction with a hot, tenuous ion beam representing the diffuse backstreaming ions has been studied. When an upstream wave is convected into or a region with increasing hot beam density, the wave steepens and becomes a pulsationlike wave packet. In order for the wave to grow to a pulsationlike structure the characteristic scale length of the density increase has to be of the same order as the wavelength of the original magnetosonic wave. Similar results are obtained when counterstreaming beam of hot ions is injected into a solar wind which does not initially contain a wave field. In this case the polarization of the pulsations depends on the hot beam temperature. The strong density increase of hot beam ions in these simulations is due to the steady injection of beam ions in a solar wind with an embedded field which is inclined relative to the solar wind direction. In the shock simulation the shock itself is the steady source of the hot backstreaming ions. These simulations suggest that upstream waves, shocklets, and short large‐amplitude magnetic structures are all the same entity in different stages of their development and play a crucial role in re‐forming oblique quasi‐parallel shocks.