Colliding magnetospheres: Comet Siding Spring flyby of Mars
Mats Holmström
Swedish Institute of Space Physics
On 19 October 2014 the comet Siding Spring flew by Mars. This was a unique opportunity to study the interaction between a cometary and a planetary magnetosphere. Here we model the magnetosphere of the comet using a hybrid plasma solver (ions as particles, electrons as a fluid). The undisturbed upstream solar wind ion conditions are estimated from observations by ASPERA-3/IMA on Mars Express during several orbits, and we find that the solar wind was fast.
A parameter study using the model show that the solar wind at Mars was disturbed by the comet during the flyby. We also find that the amount of cometary ions precipitating on Mars was small.
Created 2015-11-06 10:20:34 by Mats Holmström Last changed 2016-09-02 09:58:30 by Mats Holmström
