SIMULTANEOUS PLASMA-WAVE AND ELECTRON FLUX OBSERVATIONS UPSTREAM OF THE MARTIAN BOW SHOCK

Flux enhancements of electrons with energies between 100 and 530 eV ar e observed simultaneously with electron plasma waves in the upstream r egion of the Martian bow shock. The electron flux appears to reach its maximum when the pitch angle is close to 0-degrees, which corresponds to particles reflected from the shock region and backstreaming in the solar wind along the magnetic field. The correlation between high-fre quency waves and enhanced electron fluxes is reminiscent of several st udies on the electron foreshock of the Earth. Such a similarity indica tes that, in spite of major differences between the global shock struc tures, the microscopic processes operating in the foreshocks of Earth and Mars are probably identical.