Dynamics of ion sound waves in the front of the terrestrial bow shock

Abstract

Single spacecraft measurements from the Cluster 3 satellite are used to identify nonlinear processes in ion-sound turbulence observed within the front of the quasiperpendicular terrestrial bow shock. Ion sound waves possess spatial scales that are too small for the efficient use of multipoint measurements on inter-satellite separation scales. However, it is shown how frequency domain modelling can be applied to single spacecraft electric field data obtained using the EFW internal burst mode. The resulting characteristics of the nonlinear processes are used to argue about the possible wave sources and investigate their dynamics.