Occurrence of Non‐Stationarity at Earth's Quasi‐Perpendicular Bow Shock
Abstract Collisionless shocks can exhibit non‐stationary behavior even under steady upstream conditions, forming a complex transition region. Ion phase‐space holes, linked to shock self‐reformation and surface ripples, are a signature of this non‐stationarity. We statistically analyze their occurrence using 521 crossings of Earth's quasi‐perpendicular bow shock. Phase‐space holes appear in 65% of cases, though the actual rate may be higher as the holes may not be resolved during fast shock crossings. The occurrence rate peaks at 70% for shocks with Alfvén Mach numbers . These findings suggest that Earth's quasi‐perpendicular bow shock is predominantly non‐stationary.
Authors
- A. P. Dimmock (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1589-6711)
- Ajay Lotekar (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7359-5090)
- Ahmad Lalti (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8532-3076)
- Andreas Johlander (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7714-1870)
- D. B. Graham (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1046-746X)
- Y. V. Khotyaintsev (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5550-3113)
Institutions
- Uppsala University (SE)
- Swedish Defence Research Agency (SE)
- Swedish Institute of Space Physics (SE)
- Northumbria University (GB)
- Astronomy and Space (AU)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Geophysical Research Letters
- Published
- 2025-08-30
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1029/2025gl116121
- Primary Topic
- Ionosphere and magnetosphere dynamics
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- European Commission
- Swedish National Space Agency
- Vetenskapsrådet