Cross-Shock Potential in Rippled vs. Planar Quasi-Perpendicular Shocks Observed by MMS (original) (raw)

The magnetic structure and energy dissipation at low‐Mach‐number, quasi‐parallel collisionless shocks are examined through observations obtained by the ISEE 1 and 2 spacecraft at seven crossings of the Earth's dayside bow shock. The Alfvén Mach number of the shocks in this set ranges from 2.0 to 3.7, and the angle θBn between the shock normal and the average upstream magnetic field direction ranges from 2° to 39°. The shocks all exhibit a fairly short‐scale‐length ramp where the principal jumps in the electron temperature, ion temperature, and magnetic field strength take place. Large‐amplitude, low‐frequency, transverse waves in the magnetic field are present in and downstream from the ramp, with more modest waves upstream. The amplitude of the downstream waves is typically larger than can be accounted for by shock compression of the upstream waves. The electron heating represents about 6% of the dissipated bulk flow energy, consistent with observations in other parameter regim...