P31E-2112
Mapping of the cometary plasma density around comet CG/67P at perihelion.
Wednesday, 16 December 2015
Poster Hall (Moscone South)
Henri Pierre1, Anders I Eriksson2, Niklas J. T. Edberg2, Christian Béghin1, Pierrette Décréau1, Rejean Grard3, Michel Hamelin4, Erik P. G. Johansson2, Fredrik Johansson1,2, Jean-Pierre Lebreton5, Christian Xavier Mazelle6, Elias Odelstad2, Orélien Randriamboarison1, Walter Schmidt7, Gaétan Wattieaux8, Daniel Winterhalter9, Xavier Vallières1, Erik Vigren2, Karl-Heinz Glassmeier10, Charlotte Goetz10, Christoph Koenders10, Ingo Richter10, Martin Volwerk11, James L Burch12, Thomas W Broiles12, Ray Goldstein12, Kathleen Mandt12, Prachet Mokashi13, Hans Nilsson14, Gabriella Stenberg Wieser14, Chris Carr15, Emanuele Cupido16, Marina F Galand16, Lorenzo Matteini16, Zoltan Nemeth17, Karoly Szego18, Claire Vallat19 and Steven J Schwartz16, (1)Laboratoire de Physique et Chimie de l'Environnement et de l'Espace (LPC2E) - CNRS - Université d'Orléans, Orléans, France, (2)IRF Swedish Institute of Space Physics Uppsala, Uppsala, Sweden, (3)European Space Research and Technology Centre, Noordwijk, Netherlands, (4)UPMC (Univ. Paris) / LATMOS, Paris, France, (5)University of Orleans, Orleans, France, (6)University Paul Sabatier Toulouse III, Toulouse Cedex 09, France, (7)Finnish Meteorological Institute, Helsinki, Finland, (8)University Paul Sabatier Toulouse III, Laboratoire Plasma et Conversion d'Energie, Toulouse Cedex 09, France, (9)NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, United States, (10)Technical University of Braunschweig, Braunschweig, Germany, (11)Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna, Austria, (12)Southwest Research Institute, San Antonio, TX, United States, (13)Southwest Research Institute San Antonio, San Antonio, TX, United States, (14)IRF Swedish Institute of Space Physics Kiruna, Kiruna, Sweden, (15)Imperial College, London, United Kingdom, London, United Kingdom, (16)Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom, (17)Wigner Research Center for Physics, Budapest, Hungary, (18)Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest, Hungary, (19)ESAC, Villanueva, Spain
Abstract:
In August 2015, comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, target of the ESA’s Rosetta mission, reached its perihelion at 1.3 AU from the Sun. The Rosetta Plasma Consortium (RPC) onboard the Rosetta spacecraft offers a unique opportunity to analyze the plasma environment during this period. Combining observations from the Mutual Impedance probe (RPC-MIP) and the Langmuir probes (RPC-LAP), we estimate the cometary plasma density. We will present its spatial distribution around the comet when close to perihelion. Combined Mutual impedance and Langmuir probes density measurements are also compared to the density derived from particle measurements (RPC-ICA and RPC-IES). In addition, we will focus on localised, strong variations of the cometary plasma density over short timescales (~ minutes to seconds) observed during this period. These strong plasma density enhancements are interpreted taken into account the electron energy spectrum measured by the Ion and Electron Spectrometer (RPC-IES). Possible correlations of these plasma enhancements with variations in the magnetic field direction measured from the Magnetometer (RPC-MAG) will be discussed.
