How long can an ion tail become?

Details How long can an ion tail become? How long can an ion tail become?

Apr 2003

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2003eaeja....12125j&link_type=abstract

EGS - AGU - EUG Joint Assembly, Abstracts from the meeting held in Nice, France, 6 - 11 April 2003, abstract #12125

Computer Science

Scientific paper

Cometary ion tails are formed by the addition of ionised cometary neutrals to the flow of the solar wind. This mass loading process decelerates the wind near the comet, causing a velocity shear that in turn kinks the heliospheric magnetic field lines being convected through the comet's tail. In the tail, an induced current sheet forms. Due to the coupling of the tail field lines to the largely unaffected magnetic field in the unperturbed solar wind, the tail material is gradually re-accelerated once downstream of the coma. Magnetic tension is also expected to reduce the degree of kinking of the tail field lines, leading to the eventual erasure of the original tail field topology. The unexpected crossing by Ulysses of the ion tail of Comet C/1996 B2 (Hyakutake), around 3.8 AU down-tail of the nucleus, challenges certain aspects of the above picture. Despite its large downstream distance, the tail structure encountered was remarkably similar to that expected nearer the comet's head. The large angle between the tail axis and the anti-sunward direction appears to be the reason for the tail structure's persistence. This angle is expected to be greatest for comets at small heliocentric distances, whose orbital velocities are large. The competing processes leading to the persistence and erasure of the ion tail signatures are compared, and the conditions under which ion tails are thought to persist the longest are summarized. It is suggested that some comets' ion tails may survive as recognizable structures to the edge of the heliosphere.

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