Plasma Analysis for the Earth's Bow Shock and Magnetosheath

该项目将利用改进的基于mhd的船首激波模型分析激波穿越数据，寻求对船首激波处太阳风多向性指数的改进估计。该项目还将寻求磁鞘厚度和相关参数的解析解，并确定它们对太阳风和磁层顶参数的依赖关系。这些研究结果将与MHD模拟结果进行比较，目的是提高对磁鞘的大尺度物理特性以及弓形激波的大小和形状的理解。

This project would seek improved estimates of the solar wind polytropic index at the bow shock to be obtained by analyzing shock crossing data with improved MHD-based models for the bow shock. The project will additionally seek analytic solutions for the magnetosheath thickness and related parameters and determine their dependence on solar wind and magnetopause parameters. The results of these investigations will be compared with MHD simulations with the goal to improve the understanding of the large scale physics of the magnetosheath and the size and shape of the bow shock.