Turbulent magnetic fields are ubiquitous in space physics and astrophysics. The influence of magnetic turbulence on the motions of charged particles contains the essential physics of the transport and acceleration of energetic charged particles in the heliosphere, which is to be explored in this thesis. After a brief introduction on the energetic charged particles and magnetic fields in the heliosphere, the rest of this dissertation focuses on three specific topics: 1. the transport of energetic charged particles in the inner heliosphere, 2. the acceleration of ions at collisionless shocks, and 3. the acceleration of electrons at collisionless shocks. We utilize various numerical techniques to study these topics. In Chapter 2 we study the propagation of charged particles in turbulent magnetic fields similar to the propagation of solar energetic particles in the inner heliosphere. The trajectories of energetic charged particles in the turbulent magnetic field are numerically integrated. The turbulence model includes a Kolmogorov-like magnetic field power spectrum containing a broad range of scales from those that lead to large-scale field-line random walk to small scales leading to resonant pitch-angle scattering of energetic particles. We show that small-scale variations in particle intensities (the so-called "dropouts") and velocity dispersions observed by spacecraft can be reproduced using this method. Our study gives a new constraint on the error of "onset analysis", which is a technique commonly used to infer information about the initial release of energetic particles. We also find that the dropouts are rarely produced in the simulations using the so-called "two-component" magnetic turbulence model (Matthaeus et al., 1990). The result questions the validity of this model in studying particle transport. In the first part of Chapter 3 we study the acceleration of ions in the existence of turbulent magnetic fields. We use 3-D self-consistent hybrid simulations (kinetic ions and fluid electrons) to investigate the acceleration of low-energy particles (often termed as "injection problem") at parallel shocks. We find that the accelerated particles always gain the first amount of energy by reflection and acceleration at the shock layer. The protons can move off their original field lines in the 3-D electric and magnetic fields. The results are consistent with the acceleration mechanism found in previous 1-D and 2-D simulations. In the second part of Chapter 3, we use a stochastic integration method to study diffusive shock acceleration in the existence of large-scale magnetic variations. We show that the 1-D steady state solution of diffusive shock acceleration can be significantly modified in this situation. The results suggest that the observations of anomalous cosmic rays by Voyager spacecraft can be explained by a 2-D shock that includes the large-scale magnetic field variations. In Chapter 4 we study electron acceleration at a shock passing into a turbulent magnetic field by using a combination of hybrid simulations and test-particle electron simulations. We find that the acceleration of electrons is greatly enhanced by including the effect of large-scale magnetic turbulence. Since the electrons mainly follow along the magnetic lines of force, the large-scale braiding of field lines in space allows the fast-moving electrons interacting with the shock front multiple times. Ripples in the shock front occurring at various scales also contribute to the acceleration by mirroring the electrons. Our calculation shows that this process favors electron acceleration at perpendicular shocks. We discuss the application of this process in interplanetary shocks and flare termination shocks. We also discuss the implication of this study to solar energetic particles (SEPs) by comparing the acceleration of electrons with that of protons. The intensity correlation of electrons and ions in SEP events indicates that perpendicular or quasi-perpendicular shocks play an important role in accelerating charged particles. In Chapter 5 we summarize the results of this thesis and discuss possible future work.

Cette thèse est consacrée à l’étude des processus d’ondes au voisinage des chocs dans les plasmas spatiaux. La propagation des ondes de Langmuir dans un plasma présentant des inhomogénéités aléatoires de densité a été modélisée numériquement; les résultats obtenus ont été comparés aux données des instruments WHISPER et WBD à bord des satellites CLUSTER. Les résultats de modélisation et l’étude statistique portant sur l’intensité des ondes de Langmuir observées dans le préchoc terrestre et le vent solaire ont montré que le théorème central limite n’est pas applicable aux statistiques sur l’intensité, du fait du nombre insuffisant d’inhomogénéités. Il en résulte que la fonction de distribution de probabilité pour le logarithme des énergies d’ondes n’atteint pas la distribution normale. D’autre part la détection à distance de la zone quasi-perpendiculaire du front de choc terrestre a pu être effectuée en analysant la modulation des ondes de Langmuir et celle des ondes électrostatiques avec fréquence décalée à proximité de la limite du pré-choc. Il a été montré que la probabilité d’observation de la non-stationnarité du front de choc augmente avec le nombre de Mach du choc. Enfin le rayonnement de transition des électrons relativistes au front de choc quasi-perpendiculaire a été calculé pour expliquer le mécanisme de l’émission électromagnétique observée par les satellites près du front de choc interplanétaire le 22 janvier 2004. Les paramètres du calcul correspondent aux véritables paramètres de l’évènement. Le spectre du rayonnement de transition établi théoriquement a son maximum dans le même domaine de fréquence que pour les mesures. / The doctoral thesis is devoted to the investigation of wave processes in the vicinity of space plasma shocks. The numerical modelling of the Langmuir wave propagation in a plasma with random density inhomogeneities was performed and its results were compared with experimental data obtained by WHISPER and WBD instruments of the CLUSTER spacecraft project. The analysis results showed that the Central Limit Theorem is not applicable to the Langmuir wave intensity statistics in the Earth’s foreshock and the solar wind, because of insufficient number of inhomogeneities affecting the amplitude of the waves. Consequently the normal distribution of the probability distribution function for logarithm of wave energies is not achieved. The remote sensing of quasi-perpendicular part of the Earth’s bow shock front was performed using the analysis of the modulation of Langmuir, upshifted and downshifted wave intensities close to the foreshock boundary. The probability of the shock front nonstationarity observation was found to grow with shock Mach number. The transition radiation of the relativistic electrons at the interplanetary quasi-perpendicular shock front was calculated to explain the mechanism of electromagnetic emission observed by satellites near the shock front on January, 22, 2004. The parameters of the calculation corresponded to the actual parameters of the event. The theoretically predicted spectrum of transition radiation has its maximum in the same frequency region as in the measurements.

<p>The Earth's bow shock is a boundary where the solar wind becomes decelerated from supersonic to subsonic speed before being deflected around the Earth. This thesis presents measurements by the Cluster spacecraft upstream and at the Earth's quasi-parallel bow shock where the angle between the upstream magnetic field and the bow shock normal is less than 45 degrees. An intrinsic feature of quasi-parallel shocks is the ability of ions, that are reflected off the shock in a specular manner, to propagate far upstream and to interact with the incident solar wind. This leads to the generation of a variety of plasma waves, e.g., Ultra-Low Frequency (ULF) waves, which in their turn interact with the different ion populations. Some of the ULF waves are thought to steepen into so-called Short Large-Amplitude Magnetic Structures (SLAMS). </p><p>This thesis studies the impact of SLAMS on the incident solar wind. SLAMS are thought to play an important role in terms of 1) returning shock-reflected ions back to the shock where they can eventually contribute to downstream thermalisation and 2) local pre-dissipation of the solar wind. </p><p>The first electric field measurements of SLAMS showed a strong electric field rotation over SLAMS in association with the rotation of the magnetic field. This often leads to a local change from quasi-parallel to quasi-perpendicular conditions. In addition, short-scale electric field features were observed, e.g., spiky electric field structures associated with the leading edge of SLAMS and solitary electric field structures on Debye length scales, which are suggested to represent ion phase space holes. </p><p>Using the abilitiy of the four Cluster satellites to obtain propagation vectors of SLAMS and the high-resolution electric field measurements, the electric potential over SLAMS was studied. These structures are associated with a significant potential on the order of a few hundred to thousand Volt. Comparing these findings with data from the ion spectrometer, it was found that the bulk flow is locally significantly decelerated and moderately deflected and heated. In addition, SLAMS reflect incident ions on both the leading and trailing edge. The flux of so-called gyrating ions show a clear maximum in association with SLAMS. This indicates that SLAMS indeed play an important role for pre-dissipation of the solar wind upstream of the shock.</p>

The Earth's bow shock is a boundary where the solar wind becomes decelerated from supersonic to subsonic speed before being deflected around the Earth. This thesis presents measurements by the Cluster spacecraft upstream and at the Earth's quasi-parallel bow shock where the angle between the upstream magnetic field and the bow shock normal is less than 45 degrees. An intrinsic feature of quasi-parallel shocks is the ability of ions, that are reflected off the shock in a specular manner, to propagate far upstream and to interact with the incident solar wind. This leads to the generation of a variety of plasma waves, e.g., Ultra-Low Frequency (ULF) waves, which in their turn interact with the different ion populations. Some of the ULF waves are thought to steepen into so-called Short Large-Amplitude Magnetic Structures (SLAMS). This thesis studies the impact of SLAMS on the incident solar wind. SLAMS are thought to play an important role in terms of 1) returning shock-reflected ions back to the shock where they can eventually contribute to downstream thermalisation and 2) local pre-dissipation of the solar wind. The first electric field measurements of SLAMS showed a strong electric field rotation over SLAMS in association with the rotation of the magnetic field. This often leads to a local change from quasi-parallel to quasi-perpendicular conditions. In addition, short-scale electric field features were observed, e.g., spiky electric field structures associated with the leading edge of SLAMS and solitary electric field structures on Debye length scales, which are suggested to represent ion phase space holes. Using the abilitiy of the four Cluster satellites to obtain propagation vectors of SLAMS and the high-resolution electric field measurements, the electric potential over SLAMS was studied. These structures are associated with a significant potential on the order of a few hundred to thousand Volt. Comparing these findings with data from the ion spectrometer, it was found that the bulk flow is locally significantly decelerated and moderately deflected and heated. In addition, SLAMS reflect incident ions on both the leading and trailing edge. The flux of so-called gyrating ions show a clear maximum in association with SLAMS. This indicates that SLAMS indeed play an important role for pre-dissipation of the solar wind upstream of the shock.

Collisionless shocks are widespread phenomena in the universe, and understanding the mechanisms behind their energy dissipation, with a rare number of collisions between particles, remains a significant unresolved question. The Earth’s bow shock provides an excellent opportunity to study this phenomena in situ. For high Mach number shocks, the shock cannot be sustained without partial reflection of the incoming ions. At higher Mach numbers, the shock surface starts to exhibit non-stationary behaviours, meaning that the shock surface starts evolving. One such behaviour is known as shock reformation, where a new shock forms upstream of an existing one. This study aims to investigate shock reformation using data obtained from NASA’s MMS mission, which offers precise measurements with high spatial and temporal resolutions through its constellation of four spacecraft. Using the MMS shocks database (Lalti et al., 2022), the gradient of the magnetic field magnitude is computed to infer non-stationary behaviour and identify potential instances of shock reformation and other shock behaviours. Through the analysis of the MMS measurements, some insight into the non-stationary characteristics of shocks is obtained using the gradient of the magnetic field. However, further analysis is needed in order to refine the method of identifying non-stationary behaviour of shocks, for future applications. / Kollisionsfria chocker är ett vanligt fenomen som förekommer i universum, och att förstå hur energidissipation inträffar i chocker med ett fåtal kollisioner mellan partikar är ett olöst problem. Jordens bogchock utger en bra möjlighet att studera detta på plats med mätningar från rymdfarkoster. Detta projekt försöker studera delar av jordens bogchock och undersöka dess dynamic. För chocker med högt machtal, måste en del av jonerna från solvinden reflekteras för att chocken ska skunna upprätthållas. Vid högre machtal kan chockytan visa icke-stationära beteenden, vilket innebär att den börjar förändras. Ett exempel på sådant beteende är chockreformation, där en ny chock formas framför en befintlig chock. Denna studie har som mål att undersöka chockreformation med hjälp av data som erhållits från NASA:s MMS-uppdrag, vilket erbjuder precisa mätningar med hög rumslig och tidsmässig upplösning genom sin konstellation av fyra rymdfarkoster. Genom användning av MMS-shockdatabasen (Lalti et al., 2022) beräknades gradienten av magnetfältets magnitud för att härleda icke-stationärt beteende och identifierade potentiella fall av chockreformation och andra beteenden. Genom analys av MMS-mätningarna erhölls viss insikt i de icke-stationära egenskaperna hos chocker med hjälp av gradienten av magnetfältet, men ytterligare analys krävs för att förbättra metoden för framtida tillämpningar.

The interaction between the solar wind and Earth’s magnetic field creates the Earth’s bow shock. It is an ideal region for space probes like MMS, THEMIS or Clusters to study the collisionless shock phenomenon in space plasma. More specifically the project focuses on the topic of wave-particle interactions in the space plasma environment, which allows irreversible energy dissipation and entropy production at the event of a shock when there are a lack of collisions between particles. Research is still ongoing regarding the topic of wave-particle interactions in plasma and this project aims to contribute to our understanding of this topic. To do this, measurement data of a total of 249 shock crossing events from NASA’s Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) mission are used to conduct a statistical study. The study aims to analyse the correlation between the electric- and magnetic field measured close to shock-crossing events, and their respective macroscopic shock parameters in different shock regions, and at three different frequency bands for the attempt of further our understanding of the dynamics of collisionless shocks. Through scatter plots, negative correlations are found between both the electric- and magnetic field power, and the different macroscopic shock parameters at various shock regions and at various frequency ranges. This leads to the suggestion of potential dependencies between the occurrence of electrostatic and electromagnetic waves and those shock parameters. However, there is still room for improvement of the statistical method used for the correlation studies. / Interaktionen mellan solvinden och jordens magnetfält skapar jordens bogchock. Det är en idealisk region för rymdfarkoster som MMS, THEMIS eller Clusters att studera kollisionsfria chocker i rymdplasma. Mer specifikt fokuserar detta projekt på vågpartikelinteraktioner i rymdplasma, vilket möjliggör irreversibel energidissipation och entropiproduktion vid en chock när det råder brist på kollisioner mellan partiklar. Forskning pågår fortfarande inom området vågpartikelinteraktioner i plasma och detta projekt syftar till att bidra till vår förståelse av ämnet. För att göra detta används mätdata från totalt 249 chocker från NASA:s Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS)-uppdrag för att genomföra en statistisk studie. Studien syftar till att analysera korrelationen mellan de elektriska och magnetiska fälten som mäts nära chocker och deras respektive makroskopiska chockparametrar i olika chockregioner och vid tre olika frekvensband, i ett försök att vidare förstå dynamiken hos kollisionslösa chocker. Genom spridningsdiagram hittas negativa korrelationer både mellan de elektriska och magnetiska fältstyrkan och de olika makroskopiska chockparametrarna vid olika chockregioner och frekvensband. Detta leder till förslaget om potentiella samband mellan förekomsten av elektrostatiska och elektromagnetiska vågor och dessa chockparametrarna. Det finns dock fortfarande utrymme för förbättring av den statistiska metoden som används för korrelationsstudierna.