The interaction of turbulence with shock waves

G. P. Zank, Ye Zhou, W. H. Matthaeus, W. K. M. Rice

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

Abstract / Description of output

The interaction of turbulence and shock waves is considered self-consistently so that the back-reaction of the turbulence and its associated reaction on the turbulence is addressed. Upstream turbulence interacting with a shock wave is found to mediate the shock by 1) increasing the mean shock speed, and 2) decreasing the efficiency of turbulence amplification at the shock as the upstream turbulence energy density is increased. The implication of these results is that the energy in upstream turbulent fluctuations, while being amplified at the shock, is also being converted into mean flow energy downstream. The variance in both the shock speed and position is computed, leading to the suggestion that, in an ensemble-averaged sense, the turbulence-mediated shock will acquire a characteristic thickness given by the standard deviation of the shock position. Lax's geometric entropy condition is used to show that as the upstream turbulent energy density increases, the shock is eventually destabilized, and may emit one or more shocks to produce a system of multiple shock waves. Finally, turbulence downstream of the shock is shown to decay in time t according to t-2/3.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationSOLAR WIND TEN
Subtitle of host publicationProceedings of the Tenth International Solar Wind Conference
PublisherAIP PRESS
Pages417-420
Volume679
Publication statusPublished - 1 Sept 2003

Keywords / Materials (for Non-textual outputs)

  • Particle emission solar wind
  • Planetary bow shocks
  • interplanetary shocks
  • Solar wind plasma
  • sources of solar wind

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