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The Magnetic Field Structure of the Cometary Plasma Environment

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 April 2016

F. M. Neubauer
F. M. Neubauer*
Affiliation:
Institut für Geophysik und Meteorologie, Univeisität KölnAlbertus-Magnus-Platz5000 Köln 41FRG

Abstract

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The plasma surrounding a comet has the interplanetary magnetic field frozen in. The geometric interpretation of this property is considered. The frozen-in character of the magnetic field leads to the draping of magnetic field lines around the inner coma, where, by exclusion of the inner purely cometary ionosphere, a magnetic cavity is formed inside a region of magnetic field pile-up. The consequences of these physical processes can nicely be diagnosed and tested by interplanetary tangential discontinuities serving as tracers of the magnetoplasma flow. The topology of the magnetic field around the cavity and the shape of the ionopause, as well as the formation of the magnetic tail, are discussed. Particularly in the outer regions, the magnetic field is disturbed by strong magnetic turbulence. This turbulence plays a role in accelerating cometary and also solar wind ions to high energies.

Type
Section VII: Plasmas and Fields
Information
International Astronomical Union Colloquium , Volume 116 , Issue 2: Comets in the Post-Halley Era , 1991 , pp. 1107 - 1124
Copyright
Copyright © Kluwer 1991

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