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Evolution of the ion environment of comet 67P during the Rosetta mission as seen by RPC-ICA
Luleå University of Technology, Department of Computer Science, Electrical and Space Engineering, Space Technology. Swedish Institute of Space Physics, Box 812, SE-981 28 Kiruna, Sweden.ORCID iD: 0000-0002-7787-2160
Swedish Institute of Space Physics, Box 812, SE-981 28 Kiruna, Sweden.
Luleå University of Technology, Department of Computer Science, Electrical and Space Engineering, Space Technology. Swedish Institute of Space Physics, Box 812, SE-981 28 Kiruna, Sweden.ORCID iD: 0000-0003-0177-510X
Royal Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy, Avenue Circulaire 3, B-1180 Brussels, Belgium; Department of Physics, Umeå University, SE-901 87 Umeå, Sweden.ORCID iD: 0000-0001-5379-1158
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2017 (English)In: Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, ISSN 0035-8711, E-ISSN 1365-2966, Vol. 469, no Suppl_2, p. S252-S261Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

Rosetta has followed comet 67P from low activity at more than 3.6 au heliocentric distance to high activity at perihelion (1.24 au) and then out again. We provide a general overview of the evolution of the dynamic ion environment using data from the RPC-ICA ion spectrometer. We discuss where Rosetta was located within the evolving comet magnetosphere. For the initial observations, the solar wind permeated all of the coma. In 2015 mid-April, the solar wind started to disappear from the observation region, to re-appear again in 2015 December. Low-energy cometary ions were seen at first when Rosetta was about 100 km from the nucleus at 3.6 au, and soon after consistently throughout the mission except during the excursions to farther distances from the comet. The observed flux of low-energy ions was relatively constant due to Rosetta's orbit changing with comet activity. Accelerated cometary ions, moving mainly in the antisunward direction gradually became more common as comet activity increased. These accelerated cometary ions kept being observed also after the solar wind disappeared from the location of Rosetta, with somewhat higher fluxes further away from the nucleus. Around perihelion, when Rosetta was relatively deep within the comet magnetosphere, the fluxes of accelerated cometary ions decreased, as did their maximum energy. The disappearance of more energetic cometary ions at close distance during high activity is suggested to be due to a flow pattern where these ions flow around the obstacle of the denser coma or due to charge exchange losses.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Oxford University Press, 2017. Vol. 469, no Suppl_2, p. S252-S261
Keywords [en]
plasmas, methods: data analysis, comets: individual: 67P
National Category
Astronomy, Astrophysics and Cosmology
Research subject
Atmospheric Science
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:ltu:diva-101076DOI: 10.1093/mnras/stx1491ISI: 000443940500024Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85045920365OAI: oai:DiVA.org:ltu-101076DiVA, id: diva2:1792405
Note

For correction, see: Hans Nilsson and others, Erratum: Evolution of the ion environment of comet 67P during the Rosetta mission as seen by RPC-ICA, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Volume 469, Issue Suppl_2, July 2017, Page S804, https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stx3069

Available from: 2023-08-29 Created: 2023-08-29 Last updated: 2024-11-20Bibliographically approved

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Nilsson, HansBehar, Etienne

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