Kinematics of the ion tail of comet P/Swift-Tuttle

Details Kinematics of the ion tail of comet P/Swift-Tuttle Kinematics of the ion tail of comet P/Swift-Tuttle

Oct 1994

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1994aj....108.1462s&link_type=abstract

The Astronomical Journal, vol. 108, no. 4, p. 1462-1470

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

11

Comet Nuclei, Comet Tails, Comets, Interplanetary Magnetic Fields, Kinematics, Molecular Ions, Plasma Dynamics, Positive Ions, Radial Velocity, Solar Wind, Water, Astronomical Spectroscopy, Echelle Gratings, Ion Temperature, Line Spectra, Plasma Density, Spectroscopic Telescopes, Visible Spectrum

Scientific paper

We have obtained long-slit high resolution spectra of the H2O(+) 6199 A complex in the near tail of comet P/Swift-Tuttle. The observations were made using the Hamilton echelle spectrometer fed by the Lick Observatory 0.6 m coude auxiliary telescope. For most of our observations, the spectral slit was aligned along the Sun-tail axis and the cometary nucleus was placed at one end of the slit, giving us spectra having the spatial and spectral resolution needed to measure the radial velocity and velocity dispersion continuously down the cometary tail out to a distance of 4X105 km. The radial velocities confirm the earlier more restricted observations by Rauer & Jockers (1993) and by Wyckoff & Lindholm (1994) showing that the tail motions are indeed bulk flows in the antisolar direction. Out to 3X105 km in the tail typical bulk flows are at a speed of approximately 30 km/s. The velocity dispersion, (sigmar), of the H2O(+) lines follows a pattern that is quite systematic; sigmar is smallest near the cometary nucleus, and steadily increases down the tail. The highest velocity dispersions are found ahead of the nucleus and off the tail axis. These velocity dispersions are equivalent to ion temperatures ranging from 105 to 106 K. We note a clear anticorrelation between the H2O(+) line intensities (related to the ion density) and the bulk flow and dispersion velocities; direct mass loading of the solar wind by the observed water ions may be responsible. We discuss several approximate equipartition methods used to infer local magnetic fields induced by the interaction of the cometary ions with the solar wind particle/field stream. Typical fields derived are near 50 nT. The measured tailward accelerations are consistent with this order of magnitude B field.

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