HR: 16:15h
AN: SM32D-02    [PDF]
TI: Cluster Observations of Magnetic Structures at Quasi-Parallel bow Shocks
AU: * Lucek, E
EM: e.lucek@imperial.ac.uk
AF: Imperial College London, The Blackett Laboratory, Prince Consort Road, London, SW7 2BW United Kingdom
AU: Horbury, T
EM: t.horbury@imperial.ac.uk
AF: Imperial College London, The Blackett Laboratory, Prince Consort Road, London, SW7 2BW United Kingdom
AU: Balogh, A
EM: a.balogh@imperial.ac.uk
AF: Imperial College London, The Blackett Laboratory, Prince Consort Road, London, SW7 2BW United Kingdom
AU: Dandouras, I
EM: Iannis.Dandouras@cesr.fr
AF: CESR, BP 4346, 31028 Toulouse, Cedex 4 France
AU: Reme, H
EM: Henri.Reme@cesr.fr
AF: CESR, BP 4346, 31028 Toulouse, Cedex 4 France
AB: Collisionless quasi-parallel shocks are thought to be composed of a patchwork of short, large-amplitude magnetic structures (SLAMS) which act to thermalise the plasma, giving rise to a spatially extended and time varying shock transition. With the launch of Cluster, new observations of the three-dimensional shape and size of shock structures are available. We present SLAMS observations made when the spacecraft were separated by about 100 km. The SLAMS enhancement in $|B|$ is typically well correlated between spacecraft on this scale, consistent with previous observations showing that the overall SLAMS extent exceeded about 600 km, but small differences are still observed. The statistical characteristics of these differences contain information on the typical gradients of magnetic field changes within the SLAM structure which, in the cases studied here, occur on scales of 100-150 km.
DE: 2154 Planetary bow shocks
DE: 7851 Shock waves
DE: 7867 Wave/particle interactions
SC: SPA - Magnetospheric Physics [SM]
MN: 2003 Fall Meeting