Automated Bow Shock Identification and Multi‐Spacecraft Timing Using Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) Observations

Abstract

AbstractUtilizing 8 years of dayside Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) mission plasma region identifications, we present an automatically identified and manually verified data set of 2,594 bow shock crossings in MMS burst‐mode. For each bow shock crossing, we identify the bow shock ramp in each MMS probe using two automated methods and apply multi‐spacecraft timing to calculate the bow shock normal. The bow shock list was separated into quasi‐parallel and quasi‐perpendicular based on the presence or absence of ion foreshock in order to evaluate deviations between the automated methods and a statistical 3D bow shock model. There are large discrepancies between global and local shock properties where the local shock properties are highly skewed towards quasi‐perpendicular properties regardless of the presence of ion foreshock. Although this skewness grows when the tetrahedral configuration is suboptimal, it persists even under ideal formation, indicating that electron‐scale processes can modulate local shock properties. These findings highlight the limitations of local multi‐spacecraft timing in accurately characterizing shock geometry without contextual information, such as the presence of an upstream foreshock or a similarly disturbed downstream magnetosheath. Ultimately, this data article provides thousands of high‐resolution bow shock crossings for further scientific research by the community.

BibTeX

@article{toy‐edens2025,
  title = {Automated Bow Shock Identification and Multi‐Spacecraft Timing Using Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) Observations},
  author = {V. Toy‐Edens, S. Raptis, D. L. Turner, W. Mo, S. A. Q. Young},
  journal = {Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics},
  year = {2025},
  doi = {10.1029/2025JA034252}
}

Links

• Publisher Page
• DOI: 10.1029/2025JA034252
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