Imperial College London
Portrait Picture

Mr Chris Carr

Faculty of Natural Sciences, Department of Physics

Senior Research Lecturer
 
 
 
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Contact

 

+44 (0)20 7594 7765c.m.carr

 
 
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Assistant

 

Mr Luke Kratzmann +44 (0)20 7594 7770

 
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Location

 

6M72Huxley BuildingSouth Kensington Campus

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Summary

 

Publications

Citation

BibTex format

@article{Goldstein:2017:mnras/stx1571,
author = {Goldstein, R and Burch, JL and Mokashi, P and Mandt, K and Carr, C and Eriksson, A and Glassmeier, K-H and Henri, P and Nilsson, H and Rubin, M and Tzou, C-Y},
doi = {mnras/stx1571},
journal = {Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society},
pages = {S262--S267},
title = {Two years of solar wind and pickup ion measurements at comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stx1571},
volume = {469},
year = {2017}
}
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RIS format (EndNote, RefMan)

TY  - JOUR
AB  - The Ion and Electron Sensor (IES) as well as other members of the Rosetta Plasma Consortium (RPC) on board the Rosetta spacecraft (S/C) measured the characteristics of the solar wind almost continuously since its arrival at 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko (CG) in 2014 August. An important process at a comet is the so-called pickup process in which a newly ionized atom or molecule begins gyrating about the interplanetary magnetic field, is accelerated in the process and is carried along with the solar wind. Within a month after comet arrival, while Rosetta was <100 km from CG, we began to observe low-energy (<20 eV) positive ions. We believe that these are newly formed from cometary neutrals near Rosetta and attracted to the negative S/C potential. These ions were in the early phase of pickup and had not yet reached the energy they would after at least one full gyration about the magnetic field. As CG increased its activity, the flux and energy of the measured pickup ions increased intermittently while the solar wind appeared intermittently as well. By about 2015 end of April, the solar wind had become very faint until it eventually disappeared from the IES field of view. We then began to see ions at the highest energy levels of IES, >10 keV for a few days and then intermittently through the remainder of the mission, but lower energy (a few keV) pickup ions were also observed. As of 2016 early February, the solar wind reappeared more consistently. We believe that the disappearance of the solar wind in the IES field of view is the result of interaction with the pickup ions and the eventual formation of a cavity that excluded the solar wind.
AU  - Goldstein,R
AU  - Burch,JL
AU  - Mokashi,P
AU  - Mandt,K
AU  - Carr,C
AU  - Eriksson,A
AU  - Glassmeier,K-H
AU  - Henri,P
AU  - Nilsson,H
AU  - Rubin,M
AU  - Tzou,C-Y
DO  - mnras/stx1571
EP  - 267
PY  - 2017///
SN  - 0035-8711
SP  - 262
TI  - Two years of solar wind and pickup ion measurements at comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko
T2  - Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stx1571
UR  - http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/54998
VL  - 469
ER  -
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