Cluster and MMS simultaneous observations of the Earth’s magnetosheath region in 2017-2021

We search for ESA’s Cluster and NASA’s MMS missions’ simultaneous observations of the Earth’s magnetosheath (MSH) region. Visual inspection of Cluster quicklook plots is used to determine Cluster-MSH crossings. Next, MMS quicklook plots are inspected, and the MMS-MSH crossings which overlap in time with the Cluster-MSH intervals from step 1, are catalogued. We find 117 simultaneous crossings in 2017-2021. Our overall goal is to investigate the correlation between the properties of the magnetosheath and the bow shock (BS) characteristics. Thus, for each one of the MSH intervals in our catalogue, we determine the BS characteristics. The Earth’s bow shock can be classified as either quasi-parallel or quasi-perpendicular, depending on the angle between the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) and bow shock normal direction. We use OMNI data to determine the IMF direction, and we estimate the BS normal direction using two approaches: (1) from magnetic field measurements using minimum variance analysis and (2) from a bow shock model using solar wind data as input. We will present our catalogue of simultaneous Cluster-MMS magnetosheath crossings, and also our estimates for the BS type associated with each crossing.