Physics – Space Physics
Scientific paper
Jan 1995
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1995phdt........23p&link_type=abstract
Thesis (PH.D.)--UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS, 1995.Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 57-04, Section: B, page: 2620.
Physics
Space Physics
Scientific paper
All objects in our solar system are continuously bombarded with numerous types of radiation from our sun. Like the familiar forms of electromagnetic radiation, a corpuscular, magnetized "radiation" in the form of an ionized gas emanates from the sun at a supersonic speed in excess of 500 km/s. This magnetized, ionized gas (or, plasma) is present in the expanding solar corona and is known as the solar wind. This dissertation considers how the solar wind plasma interacts with cometary plasma and explains some of the interesting plasma phenomena seen in the in situ data taken at comet P/Halley in March of 1986. Specifically, the chemical and dynamical processes of the water-group ion plasma rm(H_2O^+, OH^+, O^+, H_3O^+) are studied numerically. The evolution of the ion velocity distribution function along the sun-comet axis is modeled by solving a generalized form of the Boltzmann equation. The initial, ring-beam distribution at a cometocentric distance of r = 350,000 km evolves to a Maxwellian distribution at a distance of r~10^4 km. The results give a clear indication of which physical processes are important at certain distances from the nucleus. This magnetized, anti-sunwardly flowing Maxwellian plasma eventually meets the unmagnetized, sunwardly flowing plasma of the ionosphere at r~5000 km. A one-dimensional hybrid simulation was developed to study the microstructure of the transition occurring at this interface. The results agree with Giotto spacecraft data and support the existence of a steep magnetic ramp at the diamagnetic contact surface due to a diamagnetic current layer. The effects of an observed energetic ion population on the microstructure of the current layer is also investigated. It is deduced that the energetic ion parameters as reported in space physics literature are unreasonably high since the simulated microstructure here bears no resemblance to that which was observed in situ.
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