Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics
Scientific paper
Sep 1997
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1997a%26a...325..839r&link_type=abstract
Astronomy and Astrophysics, v.325, p.839-846
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
6
Comets: General, Comets: 1P/Halley
Scientific paper
We present a first attempt to model the profile of ion emission lines in a cometary plasma tail with the aid of a 3D-MHD model of the comet-solar wind interaction, and to compare the calculated line profiles to high-resolution measurements of the H_2_O^+^ doublet at 6159Å in comet 1P/Halley on January 6, 1986. The modelled line profiles are asymmetric and show a high velocity wing originating from fast ions in the outer parts of the tail along the line-of-sight. Comparison with the measured profiles shows that such high-velocity wings are indeed observed and are needed to fully approximate the observed profiles. We performed a quantitative analysis of the contribution of fast ions to the ion flow to examine if they are really sufficient to explain the discrepancy between measured H_2_O^+^ production rates and the rates expected from photoionization of water. It is found that the combined effect of fast ions and the limited field-of-view can indeed reduce the measured flux. However, the reduction seems not be sufficient to explain the whole discrepancy.
Rauer Heike
Roesler Fred
Scherb Frank
Schmidt Hans-Ulrich
Wegmann Rudolf
No associations
LandOfFree
Ion emission line profiles in cometary plasma tails. 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 Ion emission line profiles in cometary plasma tails., we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Ion emission line profiles in cometary plasma tails. will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-1222576