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Chao & Chen 1985
Chao, J.K. and Chen, Y.H. (1985). On the distribution of ¿Bn for shocks in the solar wind. Journal of Geophysical Research 90: doi: 10.1029/JA090iA01p00149. issn: 0148-0227.

The distribution of the shock normal angles, &thgr;Bn, can be calculated for all the heliocentric distances when the distributions of n and B1 are available, where &thgr;Bn is the angle between the upstream magnetic field B1 and the shock normal n. The average shock normal is assumed to propagate approximately in the radial direction. However, the distribution of the angles, &thgr;nr, between the shock normals and radial direction is assumed to follow a Rayleigh distribution. The distribution of B1 is obtained by observations by Helios 1 and 2, Voyager 1, and Pioneer 10 spacecraft. The distribution of each component of B1 is assumed to follow a Gaussian. Our results show that even very close to the sun, the probability of observation of parallel and quasi-parallel shocks is still smaller compared to the observation of quasi-perpendicular and perpendicular shocks. Therefore it is concluded that the parallel and quasi-parallel shocks do not easily form in the solar wind because of the fluctuating character of B1 and n and not because of any other physical mechanism. The observed distributions of &thgr;Bn using Helios 1 and 2 at heliocentric distances between 0.3 to 0.5 AU, 0.5 to 0.75 AU, and 0.75 to 1.0 AU are compared with our calculated distributions. The agreement is good, with the agreement at 0.75 to 1.0 AU being the best. The comparison is also made with the results from ISEE 3 observations at 1 AU. Our calculated distribution agrees very well with these observations.

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Journal of Geophysical Research
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American Geophysical Union
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