Lion roars and nonoscillatory drift mirror waves in the magnetosheath

It is shown that Extremely Low Frequency, or 'lion' roars are closely coupled to quasi-periodic, large scale magnetosheath structures. Because the latter are waves generated by the drift mirror instability, an attempt is made to identify and describe the magnetic and plasma features associated with this instability. Observations and analyses of the large scale structures using ISEE 1 and 2 data for the earth's magnetosheath and Pioneer 11 data for Jupiter and Saturn are presented, along with the background of the drift mirror waves. The cyclotron and drift mirror instabilities occurring in the magnetosheath are natural relaxation processes which reduce the plasma pressure anisotropies created by preferential heating of the solar wind plasma as it passes through the bow shock, as well as the compression occurring when the plasma and fields approach the near-subsolar magnetopause.