Abstract
A shock may be defined as a layer of rapid change propagating through the plasma. In its rest frame, the shock is approximately stationary in time and is marked by a rapid transition of parameters from the medium ahead (also called upstream) to the medium behind the shock (downstream). A simple example of a shock occurs when a plane piston moves at high velocity into a homogeneous plasma at rest. A shock develops ahead of the piston between the piled-up plasma and the undisturbed plasma. The shock propagates at a velocity similar to or higher velocity than that of the piston. Another example is a wave (or a pulse) with an amplitude so high that the wave velocity of the crest is faster than the velocity of the dip. Small disturbances thus travel faster on the wave crest, overtake it and add in front of it. The wave profile steepens in the front of the wave crest and develops into a shock (like an ocean wave approaching a sloping beach steepens and finally breaks).
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Further Reading and References
General reviews
Tidman, D.A. and Krall, N.A.: 1971, Shock Waves in Collisionless Plasmas, Wiley-Interscience, New York.
Tsurutani, B.T. and Stone, R.G. (eds.): 1985, ‘Collisionless Shocks in the Heliosphere’, Geophysical Monograph 35, American Geophysical Union, Washington.
Priest, E.R.: 1982, Solar Magnetohydrodynamics, D. Reidel Publishing Comp., Dordrecht, Holland, Chapter 5 on MHD shocks.
Observations of shocks
Aurass, H.: 1992, ‘Radio Observations of Coronal and Interplanetary Type II Bursts’, Am. Geophys. 10, 359.
Bavassano-Cattaneo, M.B., Tsurutani, B.T., and Smith, E.J.: 1986, ‘Subcritical and Supercritical Interplanetary Shocks: Magnetic Field and Energetic Particle Observations’, J. Geophys. Res. 91, 11929.
Bougeret, J.-L.: 1985, ‘Observations of Shock Formation and Evolution in the Solar Atmosphere’, Rev. Current Res.,Geophys. Monograph 35, 13.
Hundhausen, A.J.: 1988, ‘The Origin and Propagation of Coronal Mass Ejections’, Proc. Sixth Int. Solar Wind Conf. (V.J. Pizzo, T.E. Holzer, and D.G. Sime, eds.), NCAR Tech. Note, TN-306, Vol. 1, p. 181.
Kahler, S.W.: 1987, ‘Coronal Mass Ejections’, Rev. Geophys. 25, 663.
Nelson, G.J. and Melrose, D.B.: 1985, in Solar Radiophysics (D.J. McLean and N.R. Labrum, eds.), Cambridge University Press, Chapter 13 on type II radio bursts.
Russel, C.T. and Hoppe, M.M.: 1983, ‘Upstream Waves and Particles’, Space Science Rev. 34, 155.
Particle acceleration
Decker, R.B.: 1988, ‘Computer Modelling of Test Particle Acceleration at Oblique Shocks’, Space Sci. Rev. 48, 195.
Jones, F.C. and Ellison, D.C.: 1991, ‘The Plasma Physics of Shock Acceleration’, Space Sci. Rev. 58, 259.
Holman, G.D. and Pesses, M. E.: 1983, ‘Solar Type II Radio Emission and the Shock Drift Acceleration of Electrons’, Astrophys. J. 267, 837.
Lee, M.A.: 1983, ‘Coupled Hydromagnetic Wave Excitation an Ion Acceleration at Interplanetary Traveling Shocks’, J. Geophys. Res. 88, 6109.
Schlickeiser, R. and Steinacker, J.: 1989, ‘Particle Acceleration in Impulsive Solar Flares II. Nonrelativistic Protons and Ions’, Solar Phys. 122, 29.
References
Bell, A.R.: 1978, ‘The Acceleration of Cosmic Rays in Shock Fronts’, MNRAS 182, 147.
Benz, A.O. and Thejappa, G.: 1988, ‘Radio Emission of Coronal Shock Waves’, Astron. Astrophys. 202, 267.
Cane, H.V. and White, S.M.: 1989, ‘On the Source Conditions for Herringbone Structure in Type II Solar Radio Bursts’, Solar Phys. 120, 137.
Harrison, R.A.: 1991, ‘Coronal Mass Ejection’, Phil. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. A 336, 401.
Kahler, S.W., Reames, D.V., Sheeley, N.R.Jr., Howard, R.A., Koomen, M.J., and Michels, D.J.: 1985, ‘A Comparison of Solar 3Helium-Rich Events with Type II Bursts and Coronal Mass Ejections’, Astrophys. J. 290, 742.
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Benz, A. (1993). Collisionless Shock Waves. In: Plasma Astrophysics. Astrophysics and Space Science Library, vol 184. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-2064-7_10
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