Dipole tilt controls bow shock location and flaring angle

The dipole tilt angle has been found to affect Earth’s bow shock. This work presents a quantitative relationship between the dipole tilt angle and the bow shock location and flaring angle. We collected a large data set of bow shock crossings from four different satellites (IMP 8, Geotail, Magion 4, and Cluster), including some recent crossings obtained during 2012–2013. The results from a statistical analysis demonstrate that: (1) the subsolar standoff distance increases but the flaring angle decreases with increasing dipole tilt angle; (2) when the dipole tilt angle changes sign from negative to positive, the dayside bow shock moves toward Earth and the shift can be as much as 2.29 R _E, during which the flaring angle increases; and (3) the shape of bow shock in the northern and southern hemispheres differs. For the northern hemisphere bow shock, with increasing positive/negative dipole tilt angle, the flaring angle increases/decreases. While for the southern hemisphere, the trend is the opposite; with increasing positive/negative dipole tilt angle, the flaring angle decreases/increases. These results are helpful for future bow shock modeling that needs to include the effects of dipole tilt angle.