Related papers: Mass loading at 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko: a case …
Context. The first long-term in-situ observation of the plasma environment in the vicinity of a comet, as provided by the European Rosetta spacecraft. Aims. Here we offer characterisation of the solar wind flow near…
When interacting, the solar wind and the ionised atmosphere of a comet exchange energy and momentum. Our aim is to understand the influence of the average Parker spiral configuration of the solar wind magnetic field on this interaction. We…
We aim at analytically modelling the solar wind proton trajectories during their interaction with a partially ionised cometary atmosphere, not in terms of bulk properties of the flow but in terms of single particle dynamics. We first derive…
Context: The ionosphere of a comet is known to deflect the solar wind through mass loading, but the interaction is dependent on cometary activity. We investigate the details of this process at comet 67P using the Rosetta Ion Composition…
The solar wind affects the plasma environment around all solar system bodies. A strong solar wind dynamic pressure pushes plasma boundaries closer to these objects. For small objects kinetic effects on scales smaller than an ion gyroradius…
The first 1000 km of the ion tail of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko were explored by the European Rosetta spacecraft, 2.7 au away from the Sun. We characterised the dynamics of both the solar wind and the cometary ions on the night-side of…
Solar wind charge-changing reactions are of paramount importance to the physico-chemistry of the atmosphere of a comet. The ESA/Rosetta mission to comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko (67P) provides a unique opportunity to study charge-changing…
Solar wind charge-changing reactions are of paramount importance to the physico-chemistry of the atmosphere of a comet, mass-loading the solar wind through an effective conversion of fast light solar wind ions into slow heavy cometary ions.…
Solar wind charge-changing reactions are of paramount importance to the physico-chemistry of the atmosphere of a comet because they mass-load the solar wind through an effective conversion of fast, light solar wind ions into slow, heavy…
We calculate the momentum flux and pressure of ions measured by the Ion Composition Analyzer (ICA) on the Rosetta mission at comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. The total momentum flux stays roughly constant over the mission, but the…
The physical processes in the solar corona that shape the solar wind remain an active research topic. Modeling efforts have shown that energy and plasma exchanges near the transition region plays a crucial role in modulating solar wind…
The Rosetta spacecraft escorted comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko for two years, gathering a rich and variable dataset. Amongst the data from the Rosetta Plasma Consortium (RPC) suite of instruments are measurements of the total electron…
Looking at the Mars-solar wind interaction on a larger spatial scale than the near Mars region, the planet can be seen as an ion source interacting with the solar wind, in many ways like a comet, but with a smaller ion source region. Here…
We present observations from the Rosetta Plasma Consortium of the effects of stormy solar wind on comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Four corotating interaction regions (CIRs), where the first event has possibly merged with a CME, are traced…
We present a further investigation into the increased ionization observed in element charge states in the fast solar wind compared to its coronal hole source regions. Once ions begin to be perpendicularly heated by ion cyclotron waves and…
Aims. Observations of solar protons near comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko (67P) by the Rosetta spacecraft can be modelled by the planar motion in an effective magnetic field proportional to 1/r^2. We aim to provide a thorough study of such…
In-situ observations of the solar wind (SW) plasma from 0.29 to 1AU show that the protons and alpha particles are often non-Maxwellian, with evidence of kinetic instabilities, temperature anisotropies, differential ion streaming, and…
The classic Weber-Davis model of the solar wind is reconsidered by incorporating alpha particles and by allowing the solar wind to flow out of the equatorial plane in an axisymmetrical configuration. In the ion momentum equations of the…
The Ion Composition Analyzer (ICA) on the Rosetta spacecraft observed both the solar wind and the cometary ionosphere around comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko for nearly two years. However, observations of low energy cometary ions were…
Once a cometary plasma cloud has been created through ionisation of the cometary neutrals, it presents an obstacle to the solar wind and the magnetic field within it. The acceleration and incorporation of the cometary plasma by the solar…