On the dynamical response of a cometary ion tail to a solar-wind event

Details On the dynamical response of a cometary ion tail to a solar-wind event On the dynamical response of a cometary ion tail to a solar-wind event

May 1980

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1980apj...238..388i&link_type=abstract

Astrophysical Journal, Part 1, vol. 238, May 15, 1980, p. 388-393.

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

13

Comet Tails, Dynamic Response, Interplanetary Medium, Kohoutek Comet, Plasma Dynamics, Plasma Interactions, Solar Wind, Interplanetary Magnetic Fields, Ionospheres, Magnetohydrodynamic Flow, Comets, Ions, Comet Tails, Solar Wind, Dynamics, Diagrams, Comae, Kohoutek Comet, Ionosphere, Plasmas, Data, Interactions, Models, Magnetic Fields, Pressure

Scientific paper

The interaction of a high-speed solar-wind stream with a comet is considered, with the comet Kohoutek (1973f) events investigated by Niedner, Rothe, and Brandt, and Niedner and Brandt, as a specific example. It is found that, at the peak of the compression region of the high-speed stream, the positions of the shock and contact surface of the cometary ionosphere could be reduced by a factor of 4, resulting in a large proportion of the plasma in the original ion tail being swept away. As the maximum stagnation pressure of the compressed solar-wind plasma is about 6 times larger than that in the low-speed solar wind just before the arrival of the compression region, the pressure of the cometary ionosphere might be too weak to stand off the compressed solar-wind plasma during the course of the event. In such a case, the whole ion tail would be uprooted from the head. These dynamical processes probably are responsible, at least in part, for the formation of side rays and the disconnection of the ion tail of comet Kohoutek during the interval considered.

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