The shocked solar wind flows around the Earth’s magnetosphere in the magnetosheath downstream
of the Earth’s bow shock. Within this region, faster flows of plasma, called magnetosheath jets, are
frequently observed. These jets have been shown to sometimes exhibit supermagnetosonic speeds
relative to the magnetosheath flow and to develop bow waves or shocks of their own. Such jet-driven
bow waves have been observed to accelerate ions and electrons. We model electron acceleration by
magnetosheath jet-driven bow waves using test-particle Monte Carlo simulations. Our simulations
suggest that the energy increase of electrons with energies of a few hundred eV to 10 keV can be
explained by a collapsing magnetic trap forming between the bow wave and the magnetopause with
shock drift acceleration at the moving bow wave. Our simulations allow us to estimate the efficiency
of acceleration as a function of different jet and magnetosheath parameters. Electron acceleration by
jet-driven bow waves can increase the total acceleration in the parent shock environment, most likely
also at shocks other than the Earth’s bow shock.