Kinetic Properties of Plasmas at Earth's Bow Shock

Earth's bow shock is a transition layer across which properties of plasmas change irreversibly. Although some features of the bow shock are well described by continuities of fluxes of various macroscopic quantities, particle dynamics across the transition layer is very complicated. Observed phase space distributions show multiple ion beams and partially thermalized ions around the transition layer. In some cases, both hot magnetosheath ions and cold solar wind ions simultaneously exist in the magnetosheath. Electrons around the transition layer usually have flat-top distributions with temperature anisotropy. From the observed properties of the phase space distributions we will discuss thermalization processes that occur across the shock transition.