2025/03/13 by Bishwas L. Shrestha, Shrestha, Bishwas L., David J. McComas +23 · 1 voice · 2 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #FOS: Physical sciences #Plasma Physics (physics.plasm-ph) #Solar and Stellar Astrophysics (astro-ph.SR) #Space Physics (physics.space-ph) #astro-ph.SR #physics.plasm-ph #physics.space-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2503.10455
This study provides a detailed analysis of fourteen distant interplanetary shocks observed by the Solar Wind Around Pluto (SWAP) instrument onboard New Horizons. These shocks were observed with a pickup ion data cadence of approximately 30 minutes, covering a heliocentric distance range of ~52-60 au. All the shocks observed within this distance range are fast-forward shocks, and the shock compression ratios vary between ~1.2 and 1.9. The shock transition scales are generally narrow, and the SW density compressions are more pronounced compared to the previous study of seven shocks by McComas et al. (2022). A majority (64%) of these shocks have upstream sonic Mach numbers greater than one. In addition, all high-resolution measurements of distant interplanetary shocks analyzed here show that the shock transition scale is independent of the shock compression ratio. However, the shock transition scale is strongly anti-correlated with the shock speed in the upstream plasma frame, meaning that faster shocks generally yield sharper transitions.