A unidimensional model for the formation of magnetic cavities in comets

Details A unidimensional model for the formation of magnetic cavities in comets A unidimensional model for the formation of magnetic cavities in comets

Oct 1990

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1990tela.rept.....k&link_type=abstract

M.S. Thesis Tel-Aviv Univ. (Israel). Dept. of Geophysics and Planetary Sciences.

Physics

Plasma Physics

Cometary Magnetospheres, Halley'S Comet, Interplanetary Magnetic Fields, Ion Density (Concentration), Solar Magnetic Field, Velocity Distribution, Continuity Equation, Giotto Mission, Momentum, Nonuniform Magnetic Fields, Plasma Physics, Space Plasmas

Scientific paper

In 1986, the Giotto spacecraft discovered a 4,700 km diameter, magnetic field-free region around Comet Halley. This region has been called the diamagnetic cavity and its boundary the contact surface. Various models have had some success in describing the cavity formation, but none has explained the two-peaked ion distribution, which includes a pile-up region and a spike near the cavity boundary. An energetic ion population, detected near the contact surface, has been suggested as a means of standing off the solar magnetic field. In the present work, a nonconstant velocity profile is integrated, in a self-consistent fashion, into a corrected Eviatar & Goldstein model, which adds the effects of thermal pressure, photoionization and recombination to ion-neutral friction effects. The model is based on two equations: the magnetic field momentum equation, and a continuity equation for the thermal ion density profile. The terms dealing with velocity derivatives were retained in order to maintain self-consistency.

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