Journal
GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS
Volume 42, Issue 11, Pages 4263-4269Publisher
AMER GEOPHYSICAL UNION
DOI: 10.1002/2015GL064233
Keywords
comet; Rosetta; plasma; RPC; ionosphere
Categories
Funding
- SNSB [DNR35/13]
- VR [621-2013-4191]
- Science and Technology Facilities Council [ST/K001051/1, ST/H002383/1] Funding Source: researchfish
- UK Space Agency [ST/K001698/1, ST/H004262/1] Funding Source: researchfish
- STFC [ST/K001051/1, ST/H002383/1] Funding Source: UKRI
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We use measurements from the Rosetta plasma consortium Langmuir probe and mutual impedance probe to study the spatial distribution of low-energy plasma in the near-nucleus coma of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. The spatial distribution is highly structured with the highest density in the summer hemisphere and above the region connecting the two main lobes of the comet, i.e., the neck region. There is a clear correlation with the neutral density and the plasma to neutral density ratio is found to be approximate to 1-210(-6), at a cometocentric distance of 10km and at 3.1AU from the Sun. A clear 6.2h modulation of the plasma is seen as the neck is exposed twice per rotation. The electron density of the collisionless plasma within 260km from the nucleus falls off with radial distance as approximate to 1/r. The spatial structure indicates that local ionization of neutral gas is the dominant source of low-energy plasma around the comet.
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