Home » Rasca et al. 2014

Mass loading of the solar wind by a sungrazing comet

Rasca A. P., R. Oran, M. Horányi, (2014), Mass loading of the solar wind by a sungrazing comet, Geophysical Research Letters, 41, 5376-5381, doi:10.1002/2014GL060990

Abstract

AbstractCollisionless mass loading was suggested by Biermann et al. (1967) for describing interactions between the solar wind and cometary atmospheres. Recent observations have led to an increased interest in coronal mass loading due to sungrazing comets and collisional debris of sunward migrating interplanetary dust particles. In a previous paper, we presented a 3-D MHD model of the solar corona based on the Block-Adaptive-Tree-Solarwind-Roe-Upwind-Scheme code which includes the interaction of dust with the solar wind. We have shown the impact on the solar wind from abrupt mass loading in the coronal region. We apply the model to a sungrazing cometary source, using ejected dust dynamics to generate tail-shaped mass-loading regions. Results help predict the effects on the solar wind acceleration and composition due to sungrazing comets, such as Comet C/2011 W3 (Lovejoy). We show how these effects may be detected by the upcoming Solar Probe Plus Mission.

Authors (sorted by name)

Oran

Journal / Conference

Geophysical Research Letters

Acknowledgments

The data for this paper are available at the University of Colorado at Boulder's Institute for Modeling Plasma, Atmospheres and Cosmic Dust. Additionally, we would like to thank B. van der Holst, T. Gombosi, and G. Tóth of the University of Michigan's Center for Space Environment Modeling for providing help with SC component of the SWMF.

Bibtex

@article{doi:10.1002/2014GL060990,
author = {Rasca, A. P. and Oran, R. and Horányi, M.},
title = {Mass loading of the solar wind by a sungrazing comet},
journal = {Geophysical Research Letters},
volume = {41},
number = {15},
pages = {5376-5381},
year = {2014},
doi = {10.1002/2014GL060990},
url = {https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/2014GL060990},
eprint = {https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/2014GL060990},
abstract = {AbstractCollisionless mass loading was suggested by Biermann et al. (1967) for describing interactions between the solar wind and cometary atmospheres. Recent observations have led to an increased interest in coronal mass loading due to sungrazing comets and collisional debris of sunward migrating interplanetary dust particles. In a previous paper, we presented a 3-D MHD model of the solar corona based on the Block-Adaptive-Tree-Solarwind-Roe-Upwind-Scheme code which includes the interaction of dust with the solar wind. We have shown the impact on the solar wind from abrupt mass loading in the coronal region. We apply the model to a sungrazing cometary source, using ejected dust dynamics to generate tail-shaped mass-loading regions. Results help predict the effects on the solar wind acceleration and composition due to sungrazing comets, such as Comet C/2011 W3 (Lovejoy). We show how these effects may be detected by the upcoming Solar Probe Plus Mission.}
}