Observations of a comet tail disruption induced by the passage of a CME

Details Observations of a comet tail disruption induced by the passage of a CME Observations of a comet tail disruption induced by the passage of a CME

Apr 2008

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2008jgra..11304101k&link_type=abstract

Journal of Geophysical Research, Volume 113, Issue A4, CiteID A04101

Physics

6

Planetary Sciences: Comets And Small Bodies: Comets: Dust Tails And Trails (6210), Planetary Sciences: Solar System Objects: Comets (6023), Interplanetary Physics: Coronal Mass Ejections (7513), Interplanetary Physics: Heliosphere/Interstellar Medium Interactions

Scientific paper

The Solar Mass Ejection Imager observed an extremely faint interplanetary coronal mass ejection (ICME) as it passed Comet C/2001 Q4 (NEAT) on 5 May 2004, apparently causing a disruption of its plasma tail. This is the first time that an ICME has been directly observed interacting with a comet. SMEI's nearly all-sky coverage and image cadence afforded unprecedented coverage of this rarely observed event. The onset first appeared as a ``kink'' moving antisunward that eventually developed knots within the disturbed tail. These knots appeared to be swept up in the solar wind flow. We present the SMEI observations as well as identify a likely SOHO/LASCO progenitor of the CME. SMEI observed two other comets (C/2002 T7 [LINEAR] and C/2004 F4 [Bradfield]) and at least five similar events during a 35-d period encompassing this observation. Although these had similar morphologies to the 5 May NEAT event, SMEI did not observe any ICMEs in these cases. Three of these were observed close to the heliospheric current sheet indicating that a magnetic boundary crossing may have contributed to the disruptions. However, there are no discernable causes in the SMEI observations for the remaining two events.

Affiliated with

Also associated with

No associations

Rating

Observations of a comet tail disruption induced by the passage of a CME does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.

If you have personal experience with Observations of a comet tail disruption induced by the passage of a CME, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Observations of a comet tail disruption induced by the passage of a CME will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

Comments { 0 }

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-1703760