Imperial College London
Alternate

DrAdamMasters

Faculty of Natural Sciences, Department of Physics

Senior Lecturer
 
 
 
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Contact

 

a.masters

 
 
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Location

 

6M69Huxley BuildingSouth Kensington Campus

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Summary

 

Publications

Citation

BibTex format

@article{Sulaiman:2016:10.1002/2016JA022449,
author = {Sulaiman, AH and Masters, A and Dougherty, MK},
doi = {10.1002/2016JA022449},
journal = {Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics},
pages = {4425--4434},
title = {Characterization of Saturn's bow shock: magnetic field observations of quasi-perpendicular shocks},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/2016JA022449},
volume = {121},
year = {2016}
}
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RIS format (EndNote, RefMan)

TY  - JOUR
AB  - Collisionless shocks vary drastically from terrestrial to astrophysical regimes resulting in radically different characteristics. This poses two complexities. First, separating the influences of these parameters on physical mechanisms such as energy dissipation. Second, correlating observations of shock waves over a wide range of each parameter, enough to span across different regimes. Investigating the latter has been restricted since the majority of studies on shocks at exotic regimes (such as supernova remnants) have been achieved either remotely or via simulations, but rarely by means of in situ observations. Here we present the parameter space of MA bow shock crossings from 2004 to 2014 as observed by the Cassini spacecraft. We find that Saturn's bow shock exhibits characteristics akin to both terrestrial and astrophysical regimes (MA of order 100), which is principally controlled by the upstream magnetic field strength. Moreover, we determined the θBn of each crossing to show that Saturn's (dayside) bow shock is predominantly quasi-perpendicular by virtue of the Parker spiral at 10 AU. Our results suggest a strong dependence on MA in controlling the onset of physical mechanisms in collisionless shocks, particularly nontime stationarity and variability. We anticipate that our comprehensive assessment will yield deeper insight into high MA collisionless shocks and provide a broader scope for understanding the structures and mechanisms of collisionless shocks.
AU  - Sulaiman,AH
AU  - Masters,A
AU  - Dougherty,MK
DO  - 10.1002/2016JA022449
EP  - 4434
PY  - 2016///
SN  - 2169-9380
SP  - 4425
TI  - Characterization of Saturn's bow shock: magnetic field observations of quasi-perpendicular shocks
T2  - Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/2016JA022449
UR  - http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/38768
VL  - 121
ER  -
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