THIS IS A PROPOSAL TO STUDY THE NATURE AND ROLE OF INTENSE WHISTLER WAVES THAT OCCUR WITHIN EARTH'S QUASIPERPENDICULAR BOW SHOCK USING MEASUREMENTS FROM THE MAGNETOSPHERIC MULTISCALE (MMS) MISSION. IN PARTICULAR THE FOLLOWING INTERRELATED QUESTIONS WILL BE ADDRESSED: 1.) WHAT ARE THE PROPERTIES OF THE INTENSE OBLIQUE WHISTLERS WAVES? 2.) WHAT ARE THEIR SOURCE MECHANISMS? AND 3.) WHAT IS THEIR ROLE IN SHOCK STRUCTURE AND PLASMA TRANSPORT? DESPITE MUCH ATTENTION THE MECHANISMS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE GENERATION OF WHISTLER WAVES AND THUS THEIR ROLE IN SHOCK STRUCTURE AND PLASMA TRANSPORT ARE NOT FULLY UNDERSTOOD AND UNDER CURRENT DEBATE. MOREOVER RECENT OBSERVATIONS SUGGEST THAT OBLIQUE WHISTLER WAVES LOCALIZED IN THE FOOT/RAMP OF SUPERCRITICAL SHOCKS MAY BE PLAYING A MORE IMPORTANT ROLE THAN PREVIOUSLY THOUGHT. NAMELY THEY CAN BE QUITE INTENSE (DB/BO1) AND HIGHLY NON-LINEAR CAN CARRY SIZABLE PARALLEL ELECTRIC FIELDS WHICH CAN ACCELERATE THE PLASMA AND APPEAR TO BE IMPORTANT SITES FOR THE GENERATION OF SECONDARY WHISTLER EMISSION AND LARGE AMPLITUDE ELECTROSTATIC WAVES. THE SCIENCE GOALS WILL BE ACHIEVED VIA COMPREHENSIVE CASE AND STATISTICAL STUDIES BASED ON THE HIGH-TIME-RESOLUTION PLASMA AND FIELD DATA FROM THE MMS MISSION. THE DATA SET FROM MMS IS UNIQUE IN THAT IT PROVIDES FOR THE FIRST TIME MULTIPOINT MEASUREMENTS OF THE PLASMA AND FIELDS WITH THE REQUISITE TIME RESOLUTION TO EVALUATE THE DIFFERENT SOURCE MECHANISMS AND HOW THESE WAVES INTERACT WITH THE PLASMA. THE ELECTRIC AND MAGNETIC WAVEFORM MEASUREMENTS WILL BE USED TO DETERMINE THE PROPAGATION SPEEDS WAVE VECTOR DIRECTIONS AND WAVELENGTHS OF THE WAVES USING DIFFERENT METHODS SUCH AS FARADAY'S LAW VARIANCE ANALYSIS AND/OR TIMING ANALYSIS. OTHER PROPERTIES SUCH AS ELECTRIC AND MAGNETIC FIELD INTENSITIES PARALLEL ELECTRIC FIELDS POYNTING FLUX AND ASSOCIATION WITH SECONDARY WHISTLER EMISSION AND LARGE AMPLITUDE ELECTROSTATIC WAVES WILL ALSO BE ANALYZED. THE WAVE PROPERTIES WILL BE COMPARED WITH OBSERVED FEATURES IN THE HIGH-TIME-RESOLUTION ELECTRON AND ION DISTRIBUTION FUNCTIONS AND MOMENTS TO ASSESS SOURCE MECHANISMS AND HOW THE WAVES INTERACT WITH THE PLASMA. THESE OBSERVATIONAL RESULTS WILL BE COMPARED WITH THEORETICAL PREDICTIONS FOR THE GENERATION OF THESE WAVES WHICH INCLUDE MICROINSTABILITIES DRIVEN BY THE RELATIVE DRIFT BETWEEN ELECTRONS AND IONS (EITHER INCIDENT OR REFLECTED) AND GENERATION VIA NONLINEARITIES IN A STEEPENING SHOCK FRONT. TO STUDY HOW THE PROPERTIES CHANGE UNDER DIFFERENT BETA AND MACH CONDITIONS A STATISTICAL DATABASE OF EVENTS WILL BE DEVELOPED AND ANALYZED. THE MACROSTATE (E.G. NORMALS SPEEDS ASYMPTOTIC PARAMETERS) OF THE SHOCKS THAT MAKE UP THE DATABASE WILL BE DETERMINED USING WELL-ESTABLISHED TECHNIQUES SUCH AS TIMING ANALYSIS AND THE VINAS-SCUDDER RANKINE- HUGONIOT BASED LEAST-SQUARE APPROACH.