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The Magnetic Field Structure of the Cometary Plasma Environment
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 April 2016
Abstract
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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