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AGU: Geophysical Research Letters

 

Index Terms

  • Magnetospheric Physics: Solar wind interactions with unmagnetized bodies
  • Planetology: Comets and Small Bodies: Interactions with solar wind plasma and fields
  • Planetology: Comets and Small Bodies: Magnetic fields
  • Planetology: Comets and Small Bodies: Plasma and MHD instabilities

Abstract

GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS, VOL. 13, NO. 9, PP. 929-932, 1986
doi:10.1029/GL013i009p00929

An MHD simulation of the interaction of the solar wind with the outflowing plasma from a comet

Tatsuki Ogino

Research Institute of Atmospherics, Nagoya University

Raymond J. Walker

Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics, University of California, Los Angeles

Maha Ashour‐Abdalla

Department of Physics, University of California, Los Angeles

The interaction between the solar wind and the outflowing plasmas from a comet has been studied by using a two‐dimensional time‐dependent magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulation. The model reproduced several features of the comet‐solar wind interaction predicted by earlier theories and observed on the recent cometary probes. These include the formation of the contact surface and the cometary magnetotail. For a constant interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) the cometary plasma captures field lines which drape over the comet to form an antiparallel magnetic field configuration in the tail and a thin plasma sheet. Eventually, tail magnetic reconnection begins to occur at several points. When the IMF orientation is reversed dayside magnetic reconnection occurs at the subsolar point and a large disturbance propagates down the tail.

Received 12 June 1986; accepted 25 June 1986; .

Citation: Ogino, T., R. J. Walker, and M. Ashour‐Abdalla (1986), An MHD simulation of the interaction of the solar wind with the outflowing plasma from a comet, Geophys. Res. Lett., 13(9), 929–932, doi:10.1029/GL013i009p00929.

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