A study of mirror waves generated downstream of a quasi-perpendicular shock

A large ion temperature anisotropy, which may lead to the generation of mirror waves, is found to exist downstream of a quasi-perpendicular shock simulated by a one-dimensional hybrid code. In the case of the earth's bow shock, large-amplitude mirror waves are found to develop approximately 0.5-1 earth radii downstream of the shock ramp. It is found that the instability criterion for mirror waves in the downstream region is satisfied for shocks with a large Alfven Mach number.