Planetary bow shocks: Gasdynamic analytic approach

Abstract

A new analytical model of the bow shock surface is suggested for reasonably accurate and fast prediction of this boundary's position near obstacles of different shape. For axially symmetric obstacles the model was verified by comparison with experiments and results of gasdynamic code application for a wide range of upstream polytropic indexes, 1.15 < γ < 2, and Mach numbers, 1 < Ms < ∞. The model can also be used for prediction of the bow shock position around nonaxially symmetric obstacles. Copyright 2003 by the American Geophysical Union.