@article{Bale:2003:10.1103/PhysRevLett.91.265004,
author = {Bale, SD and Mozer, FS and Horbury, TS},
doi = {10.1103/PhysRevLett.91.265004},
journal = {Physical Review Letters},
title = {Density-transition scale at quasiperpendicular collisionless shocks},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.91.265004},
volume = {91},
year = {2003}
}

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TY  - JOUR
AB  - Measurements of a spacecraft floating potential, on the four Cluster spacecraft, are used as a proxy for electron plasma density to study, for the first time, the macroscopic density transition scale at 98 crossings of the quasiperpendicular terrestrial bow shock. A timing analysis gives shock speeds and normals; the shock speed is used to convert the temporal measurement to a spatial one. A hyperbolic tangent function is fitted to each density transition, which captures the main shock transition, but not overshoot or undershoot nor foot features. We find that, at a low Mach number [Formula presented], the density transition is consistent with both ion inertial scales [Formula presented] and convected gyroradii [Formula presented], while at [Formula presented] only the convected gyroradius is the preferred scale for the shock density transition and takes the value [Formula presented]. © 2003 The American Physical Society.
AU  - Bale,SD
AU  - Mozer,FS
AU  - Horbury,TS
DO  - 10.1103/PhysRevLett.91.265004
PY  - 2003///
SN  - 0031-9007
TI  - Density-transition scale at quasiperpendicular collisionless shocks
T2  - Physical Review Letters
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.91.265004
VL  - 91
ER  - 

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