Observations of solar wind ion charge exchange in the Comet Halley coma

Details Observations of solar wind ion charge exchange in the Comet Halley coma Observations of solar wind ion charge exchange in the Comet Halley coma

Oct 1991

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1991apj...379..734f&link_type=abstract

Astrophysical Journal, Part 1 (ISSN 0004-637X), vol. 379, Oct. 1, 1991, p. 734-740. Research supported by CNES.

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

21

Cometary Atmospheres, Giotto Mission, Halley'S Comet, Ion Exchanging, Solar Wind, Charge Exchange, Plasma-Particle Interactions, Proton Flux Density, Space Plasmas

Scientific paper

Giotto Ion Mass Spectrometer/High Energy Range Spectrometer (IMS/HERS) observations of solar wind ions show charge exchange effects and solar wind compositional changes in the coma of Comet Halley. As the comet was approached, the He(2+) to proton density ratio increased from 2.5 percent in the solar wind to about 4 percent about 1 hr before closest approach after which time it decreased to about 1 percent. Abrupt increases in this ratio from 2.5 to 4.5 percent were also observed in the beginning and near the end of the so-called Mystery Region. These abrupt increases in the density ratio were well correlated with enhanced fluxes of keV electrons as measured by the Giotto plasma electron spectrometer. The general increase and then decrease of the He(2+) to proton density ratio is quantitatively consistent with a combination of the addition of protons of Cometary origin to the plasma and loss of plasma through charge exchange of protons and He(2+).

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