Solar wind charge exchange in cometary atmospheres

• Published in: Astronomy & Astrophysics
• Main Authors: Wedlund, Cyril Simon, Behar, Etienne, Kallio, E., Nilsson, H., Alho, M., Gunell, H., Bodewits, D., Beth, A., Gronoff, G., Hoekstra, R.
• Other Authors: University of Oslo, Swedish Institute of Space Physics, Esa Kallio Group, Royal Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy, Auburn University, Imperial College London, NASA Langley Research Center, University of Groningen, Department of Electronics and Nanoengineering, Aalto-yliopisto, Aalto University
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: EDP SCIENCES 2019
• Subjects: Comets: general; Comets: individual: 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko; Instrumentation: detectors; Methods: analytical; Solar wind; Waves; Kiruna
• Online Access: https://aaltodoc.aalto.fi/handle/123456789/114156; https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/201834874

Funding Information: cA knowledgements. The work at University of Oslo was funded by the Norwegian Research Council “Rosetta” grant No. 240000. Work at the Royal Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy was supported by the Belgian Science Policy Office through the Solar-Terrestrial Centre of Excellence. Work at Umeå University was funded by SNSB grant 201/15. Work at Imperial College London was supported by STFC of UK under grant ST/K001051/1 and ST/N000692/1, ESA, under contract No.4000119035/16/ES/JD. The work at NASA/SSAI was supported by NASA Astrobiology Institute grant NNX15AE05G and by the NASA HIDEE Program. C.S.W. would like to thank S. Barabash (IRF Kiruna, Sweden) for useful impetus on the work leading to the present study and for suggesting to investigate electron stripping processes at a comet. The authors thank the ISSI International Team “Plasma Environment of comet 67P after Rosetta” for fruitful discussions and collaborations. C.S.W. thanks M.S.W. and L.S.W. for help in structuring this immenseworkload and for unwavering encouragements throughout these two years of work. Dataset of the Rosetta mission can be freely accessed from ESA’s Planetary Science Archive (http://archives.esac.esa. int/psa). Publisher Copyright: © ESO 2019. Context. Solar wind charge-changing reactions are of paramount importance to the physico-chemistry of the atmosphere of a comet because they mass-load the solar wind through an effective conversion of fast, light solar wind ions into slow, heavy cometary ions. The ESA/Rosetta mission to comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko (67P) provided a unique opportunity to study charge-changing processes in situ. Aims. To understand the role of charge-changing reactions in the evolution of the solar wind plasma and to interpret the complex in situ measurements made by Rosetta, numerical or analytical models are necessary. Methods. An extended analytical formalism describing solar wind charge-changing processes at comets along solar wind streamlines is presented. It is based on a thorough ...