We study the jumps in the properties of pickup protons across shocks in the distant heliosphere. MHD theory and observational data are used to develop an empirical model for the pickup proton shocks. Three interplanetary shocks identified from high-resolution (192-sec average) plasma and magnetic field data observed from Voyager 2 between 34 and 43 AU are used in this study, these shocks are treated as perpendicular MHD shocks. The solar wind protons and the pickup protons are treated as two distinguished proton species, the model calculates the jumps in temperature for each species separately. The variation of the pickup proton temperature across the shock is very close to the adiabatic relation that is proportional to B.
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© 1999 American Institute of Physics.
1999
American Institute of Physics
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