CME impact on comet 67P/Churyumov-GerasimenkoSwedish Inst Space Phys, Box 812, SE-98128 Kiruna, Sweden..
Southwest Res Inst, 6220 Culebra Rd, San Antonio, TX 78238 USA..
Imperial Coll London, Exhibit Rd, London SW7 2AZ, England..
Imperial Coll London, Exhibit Rd, London SW7 2AZ, England..
Uppsala universitet, Institutet för rymdfysik, Uppsalaavdelningen.
TU Braunschweig, Inst Geophys & Extraterr Phys, Mendelssohnstr 3, D-38106 Braunschweig, Germany..
Southwest Res Inst, 6220 Culebra Rd, San Antonio, TX 78238 USA..
Lab Phys & Chim Environm & Espace, F-45071 Orleans 2, France..
Uppsala universitet, Institutet för rymdfysik, Uppsalaavdelningen.
TU Braunschweig, Inst Geophys & Extraterr Phys, Mendelssohnstr 3, D-38106 Braunschweig, Germany..
Southwest Res Inst, 6220 Culebra Rd, San Antonio, TX 78238 USA.;Univ Texas San Antonio, Dept Phys & Astron, San Antonio, TX 78249 USA..
Austrian Acad Sci, Space Res Inst, Schmiedlstr 6, A-8042 Graz, Austria..
Swedish Inst Space Phys, Box 812, SE-98128 Kiruna, Sweden..
TU Braunschweig, Inst Geophys & Extraterr Phys, Mendelssohnstr 3, D-38106 Braunschweig, Germany..
Univ Oslo, Dept Phys, Box 1048 Blindern, N-0316 Oslo, Norway..
Swedish Inst Space Phys, Box 812, SE-98128 Kiruna, Sweden..
Wigner Res Ctr Phys, Konkoly Thege Miklos Ut 29-33, H-1121 Budapest, Hungary..
Uppsala universitet, Institutet för rymdfysik, Uppsalaavdelningen.
Austrian Acad Sci, Space Res Inst, Schmiedlstr 6, A-8042 Graz, Austria..
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2016 (English)In: Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, ISSN 0035-8711, E-ISSN 1365-2966, Vol. 462, p. S45-S56Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]
We present Rosetta observations from comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko during the impact of a coronal mass ejection (CME). The CME impacted on 2015 Oct 5-6, when Rosetta was about 800 km from the comet nucleus, and 1.4 au from the Sun. Upon impact, the plasma environment is compressed to the level that solar wind ions, not seen a few days earlier when at 1500 km, now reach Rosetta. In response to the compression, the flux of suprathermal electrons increases by a factor of 5-10 and the background magnetic field strength increases by a factor of similar to 2.5. The plasma density increases by a factor of 10 and reaches 600 cm(-3), due to increased particle impact ionization, charge exchange and the adiabatic compression of the plasma environment. We also observe unprecedentedly large magnetic field spikes at 800 km, reaching above 200 nT, which are interpreted as magnetic flux ropes. We suggest that these could possibly be formed by magnetic reconnection processes in the coma as the magnetic field across the CME changes polarity, or as a consequence of strong shears causing Kelvin-Helmholtz instabilities in the plasma flow. Due to the limited orbit of Rosetta, we are not able to observe if a tail disconnection occurs during the CME impact, which could be expected based on previous remote observations of other CME-comet interactions.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2016. Vol. 462, p. S45-S56
Keywords [en]
Sun: coronal mass ejections (CMEs), solar wind, comets: individual: 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko
National Category
Fusion, Plasma and Space Physics
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-273844DOI: 10.1093/mnras/stw2112ISI: 000403172000006Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85015954646OAI: oai:DiVA.org:kth-273844DiVA, id: diva2:1433674
Conference
50th ESLAB Symposium, MAR 14-18, 2016, Leiden, NETHERLANDS
Funder
Swedish National Space Board, 109/12, 135/13, 166/14, 114/13Swedish Research Council, 621-2013-4191, 621-2014-5526
Note
QC 20200602
2020-06-012020-06-012024-01-18Bibliographically approved