Physics – Plasma Physics
Scientific paper
Dec 1986
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1986esasp.250a.241c&link_type=abstract
In ESA Proceedings of the 20th ESLAB Symposium on the Exploration of Halley's Comet. Volume 1: Plasma and Gas p 241-246 (SEE N87
Physics
Plasma Physics
17
Comet Nuclei, Halley'S Comet, Magnetic Flux, Plasma Physics, Surface Properties, Cometary Atmospheres, Giotto Mission, Magnetic Field Configurations, Plasma Interactions, Plasma Pressure, Pressure Gradients, Solar Wind
Scientific paper
The contact surface, which separates outflowing cometary plasma from solar wind controlled cometary plasma, can be explained in terms of a balance between the magnetic pressure gradient force and ion-neutral drag. The available experimental data from the GIOTTO encounter with comet Halley clearly indicates that the plasma pressure inside the contact surface cannot balance the sum of the external plasma and magnetic pressures, and therefore a Venus-like ionopause is not present at the contact surface. An expression for the magnetic field strength as a function of cometocentric distance is derived from the momentum equation. The theoretical magnetic field profile agrees quite well with the profile measured by the GIOTTO magnetometer in the vicinity of the contact surface.
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