Magnetosheath model in the Chew–Goldberger–Low approximation

Parameters of the solar wind plasma and magnetic field in the magnetosheath are calculated for an anisotropic plasma model in the Chew–Goldberger–Low approximation. It is shown that in the case when the energy transfer between the perpendicular and parallel (with respect to the magnetic field) degrees of freedom is absent, the resulting temperature anisotropy may significantly affect the plasma density and magnetic field intensity profiles across the magnetosheath. However, in this case, the value of the temperature anisotropy (the ratio of the perpendicular to the parallel component of the temperature with respect to the magnetic field, T ⊥ /T ‖ ) becomes unrealistic high. To bring agreement between the model values of the temperature anisotropy and experimental data, the existence of an intensive proton pitch-angle diffusion is assumed. In the case when the temperature anisotropy relaxation time is much smaller than the time taken by the solar wind plasma to move from the bow shock to the magnetopause, one has T ⊥ /T ‖ ≈1, and the profiles of the magnetic field and plasma density along the subsolar stream line insignificantly differ from the profiles obtained for the isotropic magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) model. In an intermediate case when the relaxation time is of the order of the plasma transport time, the value of T ⊥ /T ‖ may amount to the values observed in the magnetosheath.