J/A+A/520/A92 Global plasma parameter simulation of Comet 67P (Gortsas+, 2010)
Global plasma parameter simulation of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko
approaching the Sun.
Gortsas N., Motschmann U., Kuehrt E., Glassmeier K.-H., Hansen K.C.,
Mueller J., Schmidt A.
<Astron. Astrophys. 520, A92 (2010)>
=2010A&A...520A..92G 2010A&A...520A..92G
ADC_Keywords: Comets
Keywords: comets general - comets: individual: 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko -
plasmas - magnetic fields - interplanetary medium - methods: numerical
Description:
The evolution of the plasma environment of comet
67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko (CG) the target comet of the European Space
Agency's (ESA) Rosetta mission is investigated as the comet approaches
the Sun. The plasma environment is calculated in three dimensions with
a hybrid plasma model. The model treats the dynamics of the solar wind
protons and the cometary ions in the framework of the macroparticle
approach while the electrons are treated as a massless,
charge-neutralizing fluid. The simulation starts at 4.2AU and
finishes at 1.3AU, when the comet is at its perihelion position. Two
dimensional contour plots of the absolute value of the cometary ion
mass flux and the magnetic field in the orthogonal plane of the
interplanetary magnetic field are shown. The undisturbed solar wind
flows from left to right. The convective electric field points
downwards. The nucleus is in the middle of the simulation box. The
coma is assumed to consist of water vapor and it increases by several
orders of magnitude as the comet approaches the Sun. Therefore, the
size of the simulation box is adapted as an animation above the
contour plots shows.
File Summary:
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FileName Lrecl Records Explanations
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ReadMe 80 . This file
object.dat 74 1 67P P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko data from
B/comets catalog
hyb67P.wmv 512 3012 Movie
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See also:
B/comets : Database of the orbital elements of comets (Rocher, 2007)
Byte-by-byte Description of file: object.dat
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Bytes Format Units Label Explanations
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1- 3 A3 --- Code IAU code for the comet
5- 27 A23 --- Name IAU Name of the comet
29- 37 F9.1 d Elem Epoch of the computed elements (JD)
39 I1 --- n_Elem [0,1] relativistic effects (1)
41- 49 F9.7 AU q Perihelion distance
51- 59 F9.7 --- e Orbit eccentricity
61- 68 F8.6 deg i Inclination of the orbit
70- 74 F5.2 mag H1 Constant term for magnitude
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Note (1): this flag is set to '1' when the relativistic forces have been
taken into account in the computations.
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Acknowledgements:
Nikolaos Gortsas, Nikolaos.Gortsas(at)dlr.de
(End) N. Gortsas [DLR/TU Braunschweig, Germany], P. Vannier [CDS] 31-Jul-2010