ePubs
The open archive for STFC research publications
Home
About ePubs
Content Policies
News
Help
Privacy/Cookies
Suggest an Enhancement
Contact ePubs
Full Record Details
Persistent URL
http://purl.org/net/epubs/work/10916237
Record Status
Checked
Record Id
10916237
Title
Using comet plasma tails to study the solar wind
Contributors
GP Zank (Ed.)
,
A Buffington
,
J Borovsky (Ed.)
,
JM Clover
,
R Bruno (Ed.)
,
PP Hick
,
J Cirtain (Ed.)
,
H Yu
,
S Cranmer (Ed.)
,
MM Bisi
,
H Elliott (Ed.)
,
J Giacalone (Ed.)
,
W Gonzalez (Ed.)
,
G Li (Ed.)
,
E Marsch (Ed.)
,
E Moebius (Ed.)
,
N Pogorelov (Ed.)
,
J Spann (Ed.)
,
O Verkhoglyadova (Ed.)
Abstract
The plasma tails of comets have been used as probes of the solar wind for many years, and well before direct solar wind measurements. Now, analyses utilizing the much greater regularity and extent of comet tails imaged from space detail outward solar wind flow much better than was previously possible. These analyses mark the location of the solar wind flow in three-dimensions over time much as do in-situ measurements. Data from comet plasma tails using coronagraphs and heliospheric white-light imagers provide a view closer to the Sun than where spacecraft have ventured to date. These views show that this flow is chaotic and highly variable, and not the benign regular outward motion of a quiescent plasma. While this is no surprise to those who study and characterize the solar wind in situ or use remotely-sensed interplanetary scintillation (IPS) techniques, these spacecraft images provide a visualization of this as never-before possible. Here we summarize the results of an analysis that determines solar wind velocity from multiple comet tails that were observed by the Solar Mass Ejection Imager (SMEI) and also by the inner Heliospheric Imager (HI) on board the Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory Ahead (STEREOA) spacecraft. Finally, we present results using a similar analysis that measures this same behavior using coronagraph observations in the low corona.
Organisation
STFC
,
RALSP
,
RALSP - SPD
Keywords
Funding Information
Related Research Object(s):
Licence Information:
Language
English (EN)
Type
Details
URI(s)
Local file(s)
Year
Paper In Conference Proceedings
AIP Conf Proc
1539 (2013): 364-369.
doi:10.1063/1.4811062
2013
Showing record 1 of 1
Recent Additions
Browse Organisations
Browse Journals/Series
Login to add & manage publications and access information for OA publishing
Username:
Password:
Useful Links
Chadwick & RAL Libraries
SHERPA FACT
SHERPA RoMEO
SHERPA JULIET
Journal Checker Tool
Google Scholar