Speaker
Description
Comets are directly influenced by the solar wind and one of the most spectacular interactions is a tail disconnection event. This can occur when a solar wind structure such as a CME, a faster solar wind stream or a change in magnetic field polarity (Heliospheric Current Sheet crossing) causes the tail of the comet to be completely detached from the nucleus.
Using a combination of amateur observations and STEREO HI data, multiple disconnection events from different comets have been analysed using the HUXt solar wind model. This uses a reduced physics approach and can be used alongside data assimilation to provide solar wind conditions for bodies in the solar system. Comets cover a large range of latitudes and therefore can provide an insight into the solar wind conditions out of the ecliptic plane. The aim of this research is to test how effective the solar wind model is outside of the ecliptic plane, using comet tail disconnection events as in-situ probes over a wide range of locations which are currently unoccupied by spacecraft.
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