Ion Reflection by a Rippled Perpendicular Shock

Abstract

We use multi-spacecraft Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) observations to investigate electric fields and ion reflection at a non-stationary collisionless perpendicular plasma shock. We identify sub-proton scale (5-10 electron inertial lengths) large-amplitude normal electric fields, balanced by the Hall term ($\mathbf{J}\times \mathbf{B}/ne$), as a transient feature of the shock ramp related to non-stationarity (rippling). The associated electrostatic potential, comparable to the energy of the incident solar wind protons, decelerates incident ions and reflects a significant fraction of protons, resulting in more efficient shock-drift acceleration than a stationary planar shock.

14 pages, 4 figures, supplementary material

References in corpus (2)

• Large parallel and perpendicular electric fields on electron spatial scales in the terrestrial bow shock
• The Dynamics of a High Mach Number Quasi-Perpendicular Shock: MMS Observations

Cited by in corpus (1)

• Occurrence of Non-Stationarity at Earth's Quasi-Perpendicular Bow Shock