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Press release - Nilsson et al., Science 2015 - Animation created with Python and After Effects (Adobe)

Field Of View - 14-11-28

Behar et al., Geophysical Research Letters 2016 - Animation created with Python and Premiere Pro (Adobe)

Animation showing the temporal evolution of the solar wind proton and cometary water ion flows in the RPC-ICA Field Of View. Data from the 2014-11-28, see Behar et al., 2015

In this article, we study the mass-loading phenomenon occuring in the vicinity of 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. A very visual result of this phenomenon can be seen on the animation: the interaction between the solar wind and the partially ionized coma results in both flows being accelerated in opposite direction. Cometary ions are accelerated along one direction, and as a result of momentum conservation, the solar wind is deflected in the 'opposite' direction. As the solar wind magnetic field direction changes, both flow directions evolve accordingly. In this visualization, both flows rotate around the sun position, always ~180° apart of each other.

The FOV obstruction due to the spacecraft is displayed as the dark grey surface on the right. The upper surface represent the solar array obstruction, and as the spacecraft body changes its attitude, one can see the array adapting to always be normal to the sun direction.

EGU General assembly 2015



EPSC 2015