An Analytic Gasdynamic Approach to the Modeling of Earth's Bow Shock

A new analytical model of the bow shock surface is suggested for reasonably accurate and fast prediction of this boundary's position near obstacles of different shape. The model can be conveniently applied for studies of a wealth of physical processes that strongly influence the charged particle population upstream of the Earth's bow shock. For an axially symmetric magnetopause obstacle the bow shock model was verified by comparison with experiments and results of gasdynamic simulations for a wide range of upstream polytropic indexes, 1.15 < γ < 2, Mach numbers, 1 < Ms < ∞ , and obstacle shapes. The model can be also used for the prediction of the bow shock position around non-axially symmetric magnetopauses.