Explanipedia

Ion Reflection From the Martian Bow Shock Open

J. S. Halekas, D. L. Mitchell, C. Mazelle, J. R. Espley, Jacob Fruchtman · 2025

We utilize Mars Atmospheric and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) observations to study reflected ions upstream from the Martian bow shock. We conduct back‐tracing of trajectories to separate ions in velocity space and quantify the reflected ion …

Role of ULF Waves in Reforming the Martian Bow Shock Open

Chi Zhang, Chuanfei Dong, Terry Z. Liu, C. Mazelle, Savvas Raptis , et al. · 2025

Understanding the nature of planetary bow shocks is beneficial for advancing our knowledge of solar wind interactions with planets and fundamental plasma physics processes. Here, we utilize data from the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolut…

Application of a Scale Normalization Technique for High Resolution Analysis of the Magnetosheath at Mars Open

Jacob Fruchtman, J. S. Halekas, F. G. Eparvier, J. Gruesbeck, C. Mazelle , et al. · 2024

In order to study spatial distributions of global magnetosheath structures, physicists often rely upon spatial binning, whereby space is divided into cells, each filled with the average value of all spacecraft measurements within that cell…

Seasonal and Mach Number Variation of the Martian Bow Shock Structure Open

Jacob Fruchtman, J. S. Halekas, J. Gruesbeck, D. L. Mitchell, C. Mazelle · 2023

Like its terrestrial counterpart, the Martian bow shock can exhibit foot, ramp, and overshoot substructures. The shock extent is known to vary with solar wind and season, but it remains an open question whether other features of the bow sh…