The formation of supersonic, radiatively cooled plasma jets with applications to
laboratory astrophysics has been an active area of research on the MAGPIE generator. One
of the ways of producing astrophysically-relevant jets in the laboratory is by using the
ablation of plasma from a radial foil Z-pinch. In this configuration a ~1.4 MA, 250
ns current pulse is introduced into an aluminium disk with a thickness of 15
μm. The ablated plasma from the foil converges on the axis, producing a
steady and collimated jet with a typical axial velocity of ~100 km/s. The setup
allows for the addition of argon above the foil for jet-ambient interaction studies. The
interaction is characterised by the formation of several shock features, which are
presented and discussed from experimental data and numerical simulations.