Lecturer: Hans Nilsson (IRF) Date: 2025-01-23 10:00 Place: Aniara
Solar wind interaction with comet 67P around perihelion - the formation of a cometosheath
Hans Nilsson
Swedish Institute of Space Physics
Near perihelion, when comet 67P was most active, the Rosetta spacecraft resided inside the comet induced magnetosphere. The solar wind magnetic field was still present, but the solar wind ions were mostly gone, Rosetta was in the solar wind ion cavity. The solar wind was not completely gone though, there were sporadic occurrences of solar wind ions. Observations from this period shed light on the solar wind - comet interaction for a medium activity comet. Such a medium activity comet is the likely target of the Comet Interceptor mission so a better understanding of the environment will help planning plasma observations for that mission. Solar wind ions flowing consistently anti-sunward were seen, indicating a fully developed cometosheath pushed closer to the nucleus. The speed of the solar wind in the cometosheath was typically around 150 - 200 km/s with a broad angular distribution. One-dimensional temperature estimates from direction integrated energy spectra indicate only a slight heating of solar wind protons in the cometosheath. Thus a weak mass loaded shock has formed upstream of our observations.
The seminar is also online. See emails for connection details.
Created 2024-12-02 10:19:11 by Mats Holmström Last changed 2025-01-21 08:23:12 by Mats Holmström
