Solar wind plasma at the Earth’s orbit carries transient magnetic field structures including discontinuities. Their interaction with the Earth’s bow shock can significantly alter discontinuity configuration and stability. We investigate such an interaction for the most widespread type of solar wind discontinuities—rotational discontinuities (RDs). We use a set of in situ multispacecraft observations and perform kinetic hybrid simulations. We focus on the RD current density amplification that may lead to magnetic reconnection. We show that the amplification can be as high as two orders of magnitude and is mainly governed by three processes: the transverse magnetic field compression, global thinning of RD, and interaction of RD with low-frequency electromagnetic waves in the magnetosheath, downstream of the bow shock. The first factor is found to substantially exceed simple hydrodynamic predictions in most observed cases, the second effect has a rather moderate impact, while the third causes strong oscillations of the current density. We show that the presence of accelerated particles in the bow shock precursor highly boosts the current density amplification, making the postshock magnetic reconnection more probable. The pool of accelerated particles strongly affects the interaction of RDs with the Earth’s bow shock, as it is demonstrated by observational data analysis and hybrid code simulations. Thus, shocks should be distinguished not by the inclination angle, but rather by the presence of foreshocks populated with shock reflected particles. Plasma processes in the RD–shock interaction affect magnetic structures and turbulence in the Earth’s magnetosphere and may have implications for the processes in astrophysics.

地球轨道上的太阳风等离子体携带包括不连续性在内的瞬态磁场结构。它们与地球弓形激波的相互作用可以显着改变不连续性配置和稳定性。我们研究了最广泛类型的太阳风不连续性——旋转不连续性 (RD) 的这种相互作用。我们使用一套原位多航天器观测和执行动力学混合模拟。我们关注可能导致磁重联的 RD 电流密度放大。我们表明放大可以高达两个数量级，主要受三个过程控制：横向磁场压缩、RD 的整体变薄以及 RD 与磁鞘中低频电磁波的相互作用，在磁鞘下游。弓冲击。在大多数观察到的情况下，发现第一个因素大大超过了简单的流体动力学预测，第二个影响具有相当温和的影响，而第三个因素导致电流密度的强烈振荡。我们表明，弓形激波前体中加速粒子的存在极大地提高了电流密度放大，使激后磁重联的可能性更大。正如观测数据分析和混合代码模拟所证明的那样，加速粒子库强烈影响 RD 与地球弓形激波的相互作用。因此，不应通过倾角来区分激波，而应通过存在激波反射粒子的前震来区分。RD-激波相互作用中的等离子体过程影响地球磁层中的磁结构和湍流，并可能对天体物理学中的过程产生影响。