Localised plasma density enhancements around comet CG/67P

Pierre Henri (1) , T. Broiles (2) , A. Eriksson (3) , Christian Béghin (1) , J.P. Lebreton (3) , X. Vallieres (4) , Jérome More (1) , Gaëtan Wattieaux (5) , Ilka A.D. Engelhardt (3) , N. Edberg (3) , Elias Odelstad (3) , Erik Vigren (3) , Karl-Heinz Glassmeier (6) , Charlotte Goetz (6) , Christoph Koenders (6) , Ingo Richter (6) , M. Volwerk (7) , James L. Burch (2) , Raymond Goldstein (8) , Kathleen Mandt (8) , Hans Nilsson (3) , G. Stenberg Wieser (3) , Zoltán Nemeth (9) , K. Szegoe (9) , Chris Carr (10) , C. Vallat (11)

1 LPC2E - Laboratoire de Physique et Chimie de l'Environnement et de l'Espace
2 Space Science Division [San Antonio]
3 IRF - Swedish Institute of Space Physics [Uppsala]
4 Technical University of Braunschweig
5 LAPLACE-PRHE - Plasmas Réactifs Hors Equilibre
6 Technische Universität Braunschweig = Technical University of Braunschweig [Braunschweig]
7 IWF - Space Research Institute of Austrian Academy of Sciences
8 SwRI - Southwest Research Institute [San Antonio]
9 Wigner Research Centre for Physics [Budapest]
10 Blackett Laboratory
11 Rosetta Science Ground Segment

Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, target of the ESA’s Rosetta mission, reached its perihelion at 1.3 AU fromthe Sun in August 2015. Its plasma environment will go on being monitored by the Rosetta Plasma Consortium(RPC) as the distance to the sun increases, until end of mission in September 2016.Combining observations from the different RPC sensors, we investigate localised, strong enhancements of thecometary plasma density over short timescales (- minutes to seconds) observed during the period April 2015- January 2016. These strong plasma density variations (RPC-MIP and RPC-LAP) are likely associated to coldelectrons (RPC-IES) and generally observed during magnetic field rotations (RPC-MAG). The location of suchevents, both in the rotating comet frame and with regard to the magnetic field direction, is discussed to betterconstrain the mechanism at the origin of these localised plasma density enhancements

Domains: Sciences of the Universe [physics]

Pierre Henri, T. Broiles, A. Eriksson, Christian Béghin, J.P. Lebreton, et al.. Localised plasma density enhancements around comet CG/67P. EGU General Assembly 2016, Apr 2016, Vienne, Austria. pp.Poster. ⟨insu-01452632⟩