Mass loading at 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko: a case study
Abstract
We study the dynamics of the interaction between the solar wind ions and a partially ionized atmosphere around a comet, at a distance of 2.88 AU from the sun during a period of low nucleus activity. Comparing particle data and mag- netic field data for a case study, we highlight the prime role of the solar wind electric field in the cometary ion dynamics. Cometary ion and solar wind proton flow directions evolve in a correlated manner, as expected from the theory of mass loading. We find that the main component of the acceler- ated cometary ion flow direction is along the anti-sunward direction, and not along the convective electric field direc- tion. This is interpreted as the effect of an anti-sunward polarisation electric field adding up to the solar wind con- vective electric field.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1805.05587,
title = {Mass loading at 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko: a case study},
author = {E. Behar and H. Nilsson and G. Stenberg Wieser and Z. Nemeth and T. W. Broiles and I. Richter},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1805.05587},
year = {2018}
}
Comments
6 pages, 3 figures