- Queen Mary University of London, School of Physics and Chemical Sciences, Physics and Astronomy, London, United Kingdom of Great Britain – England, Scotland, Wales (m.lindberg@qmul.ac.uk)
The size of collisionless shock waves is believed to play an important role in determining the maximum energy gain of particles accelerated at heliospheric and astrophysical shocks.
In this study, we use the Parker Solar Probe and Solar Orbiter gravity assists at Venus to investigate electron acceleration at the Venusian bow shock.
The identified Venusian shock crossings are compared to terrestrial bow shock crossings with similar shock parameters using the Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) mission. The aim of the comparison is to uncover potential differences between the two different types of bow shocks and how the size of collisionless bow shocks affects electron acceleration.
Preliminary results indicate a harder average spectral index (p ~ 3.5±0.6) for suprathermal electrons observed at Venus's bow shock than those found at Earth's bow shock (p ~ 4.9±0.8) for similar Mach number and shock angle.
How to cite: Lindberg, M. and Hietala, H.: Electron Acceleration Comparison of the Venusian and Terrestrial Bow Shocks, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-2626, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-2626, 2025.
