Abstract
Over 200 crossings of the distant downwind flanks of Earth's magnetosonic bow shock by ISEE 3 included many cases of weak, or low Mach number, quasiparallel shocks. A consistent feature of the magnetic field profiles was the presence of large amplitude, near periodic to irregular transverse oscillations downstream from even the weakest Q∥ shocks. Large downstream perturbations with whistler‐like features similar to those of the observations appear in one‐dimensional simulations when MA > 2.5 but not when MA = 2.1. The observed cases with downstream waves also occurred when MA > ≈ 2.5, suggesting the importance of the Alfvén as opposed to magnetosonic Mach number in determining the signature of weak, Q∥ shocks.
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