Plasma waves are a characteristic feature of shocks in plasmas, and the electric fields of these waves play a key role in dissipating energy in the shock and driving the particle distributions back toward thermal equilibrium. Starting on 31 August 2007 and ending on 1 September 2007, a series of intense bursts of broadband electrostatic waves signalled a series of crossings of the termination shock at a heliocentric radial distance of 83.7 au.
