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Neptune inbound bow shockVoyager 2 crossed the inbound or upstream Neptunian bow shock at 1430 spacecraft event time on August 24 in 1989 (Belcher et al., 1989). The plasma and magnetic field measurements allow us to study the solar wind interaction with the outermost gas giant. To fully utilize all of the spacecraft observations, an improved nonlinear least squares, 'Rankine-Hugoniot' magnetohydrodynamic shock-fitting technique has been developed (Szabo, 1994). This technique is applied to the Neptunian data set. We find that the upstream bow shock normal points nearly exactly toward the Sun consistent with any reasonable large-scale model of the bow shock for a near subsolar crossing. The shock was moving outward with a speed of 14 +/- 12 km/s. The shock can be characterized as a low beta, high Mach number, strong quasi-perpendicular shock. Finally, the shock microstructure features are resolved and found to scale well with theoretical expectations.
Document ID
19950046210
Acquisition Source
Legacy CDMS
Document Type
Reprint (Version printed in journal)
External Source(s)
Authors
Szabo, Adam
(Massachusetts Inst. of Technology, Cambridge, MA United States)
Lepping, Ronald P.
(NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD, United States)
Date Acquired
August 16, 2013
Publication Date
February 1, 1995
Publication Information
Publication: Journal of Geophysical Research
Volume: 100
Issue: A2
ISSN: 0148-0227
Subject Category
Astrophysics
Accession Number
95A77809
Funding Number(s)
CONTRACT_GRANT: JPL-959475
CONTRACT_GRANT: NAGW-2403
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Other

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